- In most presentations, you're going to have
some main points in the body.
It's very important that you clearly communicate
what those main points are,
and one of the ways to do that
are great transition statements.
This is kind of a subtle skill, but we're gonna unpack it.
So we're gonna take a look at four tips
for signposts and transition statements.
This is really important because you want
your audience to be able to follow
exactly what you're talking about,
and if they get confused on what point you're on
in the body of your presentation,
then they're not gonna remember really what you said,
so we're doing this for your listeners.
And we're assuming here that
you have a classic intro, body and conclusion,
and that we're trying to transition
and indicate clearly our three main points in the body.
The first tip is that transition statements
should separate main points.
Now, some people don't teach it this way.
In fact, when we do writing,
we try to smoothly move from one point to the next,
but if you think about it, in writing,
we have a lot of help, a lot of visual cues
that show there's a new paragraph, so we indent it there,
there's some spacing, there's some headings,
but when you're just presenting in front of an audience,
you may not have any of those visual cues,
and so you have to be a little bit more obvious
with your word choice to separate,
that shows you're shifting gears from one point to the next.
And when we're too subtle, when it's too smooth,
and we use words like, "And that leads us to,"
or, "Another issue is," then what happens is,
it sounds to our listeners like we're just
continuing to add on to our first point.
They don't recognize that
as a transition if it's too smooth,
and then they lose track of what we're saying,
so you really wanna separate your main points
very clearly with your words.
One of the best ways to do that
is to signpost each main point,
and that's like a street sign, like it says, Route 95,
and you realize what road you're riding on.
That's where you literally say,
first, second and third when you reach those points
in your presentations.
And I prefer using the numbers, first second, third.
Other people say, well, can you say something
a little bit more subtle, like first, next, finally?
And yeah, sure, you can.
I think, however, every single time
I've seen people do this, even when they do it well,
a certain chunk of your audience
is going to hear that word, finally,
and they're going to take that as a signal
that you are concluding your presentation.
So you say finally on your third point,
and then you also say, "In conclusion,"
and to some people it'll be blurry.
It'll sound like you concluded twice,
so I always personally say first, second, third.
There's no way to mistake that.
Then we're gonna add our transition statements,
so that, after we finish a main point,
we transition to the next main point,
and those transition statements
will follow each of our main points.
The classic transition is one way to go.
This can sound a little stiff
and a little wooden to some people,
and I don't necessarily recommend it in all cases,
but it is an instructive place to start
to look at how a good transition should be constructed.
And that is, there's a part A and a part B
to the classic transition.
Part A looks back at what you just said.
"Now that we've discussed tents,"
and part B looks forward to what you're about to discuss,
"Let's talk about sleeping bags."
So, a little stiff-sounding in the word choice,
but it does the job in that it shows
that you're moving on from A and you're moving toward B.
I think a better way to do this is the summary transition,
and this is the way I personally do it.
It's a little more subtle in the language,
a little smoother, and yet it still clearly
does the job of separating the main points.
And the idea here is you still have an A and a B,
but you are recapping or summarizing
what you just said in one sentence,
and then you're forecasting where you're going to go next.
"And that's why tents are the first key component
"of your camping gear.
"Now let's discuss another key piece of gear."
So by recapping A, little pause,
and the forecasting B, it sounds a little more natural
than the classic, that stiff-sounding transition,
but it still gets the job done,
and if you have three main points
then you wanna summarize each of those as you go.
So let's say you just finished your second main point,
it sounds like this, "Tents are the first
"key component of your camping gear.
"A good sleeping bag is the second.
"Let's now discuss how you're going to carry it all."
And that last part there shows that
you're about to talk about,
you probably guessed it, a backpack.
So this is a summary transition,
it's the one I recommend.
The wording is not exactly the crucial thing,
it's just this notion that you recap each main point
before you move onto the next one
and your audiences will really appreciate that.
They won't lose their place if you do it this way.
So with these four tips, I'm pretty sure
you'll be able to lead your audience along,
they'll be able to follow your message,
and that's really the first key.
You want them to follow you.
You're much more likely to persuade them,
to convince them, to help them learn
whatever it is you're trying to teach them.
Keep in mind that transitions and signposts,
those are for your listeners,
and even if they sound a little unnatural
and you wouldn't talk this way in everyday conversation,
you're doing it for your listeners.
So I hope you get to use these tips
in your very next presentation.