So you've written a wonderful presentation it's got a big idea it's
full of useful data, insight into the topic, brilliant observations. You're wise,
you're clever, you're funny, and yet when you give your presentation the reaction
is rather, shall we say, lukewarm. What went wrong? The content was
great. Visuals: Check. Hair: check. Makeup; Check. Could it be your body language? Do
you look serious enough? Your facial expressions? Do you look intellectual
enough? Maybe I need my glasses for that. Do you look intellectual enough? Could it
be your eye contact? That's very important. Rule number
one good eye contact. If it's a small audience look around make eye contact
with everyone. A large audience divide the crowd up into sections and dip in
and out. Look at each section for a few seconds at a time.
Or could it be the delivery of your talk? how you use the English language? Your
voice. The rhythm, the register, the tone, the sound and the poetry of your English.
If it is pay attention because this is what we're going to look at today at the
end of this video I'm going to give a short presentation of my own so make
sure you stay for that. So if you want to give an amazing, crowd-pleasing,
life-enhancing presentation then stay tuned.
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk and today we're going to look at how to make
a great presentation. By the way I'm an English teacher not a presentationy
experty kind of guy even though I've done quite a few presentations of my own
over the years. So we'll be focusing on your use of language I will leave the
content up to you. However I will give a few general tips but mostly I'll be
focusing on the delivery and the style of English in your presentation. Now
remember, if you're not a native English speaker the music and the rhythm of
English could be different to your language so do pay attention to that. For
all talks and presentations you need three things: to be informative; to be
interesting; and to show Authority. informative: Do you have a big idea?
Interesting: If you sound interested your audience will love it too. Authority: in
other words, you need to convince the audience that you know what you're
talking about. if you sound too nervous or hesitant you
won't convince your audience. However, a little bit of nerves is ok. It shows
that you're human. Anyway we've done number one - very important so this is
rule number two. Rule number two; try not to read your presentation. If you sound
like you're reading your audience will automatically switch off. Reading
diminishes your authority and sounds boring. "Today I'm going to show you how
drinking English tea can extend your life by 20 years." However good your
content is your audience won't be listening. Best to have bullet points to
guide you through the presentation. This also leaves room for spontaneity and
engagement with the audience. Remember people love imperfection. it's
counterintuitive but a little insecurity, making the odd mistake, goes
down well with your audience. If you must read then at least make sure it doesn't
sound like you're reading. For that some of the
tips that follow will help. The voice you want to sound serious in your
presentation so try to aim for a falling tone in your sentences. You can break
this rule from time to time but as a general rule it's true. So don't sound
too high-pitched you'll sound nervous and clumsy.
keep the voice down with a falling tone. So for example don't say "hello
everybody nice to see you today with this new
strategy alone we've increased our business 30% in the last five years" do
say "hello everybody nice to see you today with this new
strategy alone we've increased our business 30% in the last five years."
Intonation: In English there is a lot of raising and lowering of tones but if you
speak in a flat tone like this it sounds boring the listeners will be bored and
you'll be bored it sounds monotonous because it is
monotonous. Now I have an exercise for you. What I want you to do is to find a
sentence from your presentation ok so for example (I'm breaking my
rule here by reading) "The average user checks their smartphone 50,000 times a
year" Now what I want you to do is to take the sentence and replace this
the words with da's and I want you to record yourself doing it so da da
da da da da da da da da. Right now go back to sentence and increase the
intonation by about 50% still using das da da da da da da Dada Dada Dada Dada
Dada da. Finally replace the DA'S with the words stressing the words you
consider the most important "the average user checks their smartphone 50,000
times a year" now that should sound right most of the
time. Your intonation conveys meaning sometimes of course you don't want to
have this varied intonation, you want a more monotonous tone. For example "can you
turn the lights out?" and not "can you turn the lights out?" But in my experience in
general in presentations there is too little variety in the intonation. Volume
You need to vary the volume of your speech sometimes quiet sometimes
loud. Sometimes you're speaking softly so that the listeners have to strain their
ears to hear you. Only do this when you've already got their attention.
Otherwise they're likely to fall asleep. Other times you must speak loudly.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
for he who sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother be he ne'er so vile"
A bit of Shakespeare for you there.
Speed Sometimes you want to speed things up to
give the impression that things are moving quickly and it's very, very
exciting. Sometimes you want to go slow, slow, slow so that your listeners can
linger on every word. We've sold more than a million copies of our product in
Germany France the UK Brazil the US but now.... it's time to open up to the biggest
market of them all....
Lichtenstein. Only kidding kidding China.
Silence. You know what you should never underestimate in a presentation? Silence
That's what sometimes leaving a pause just at the right moment can capture the
mood. We've talked about volume, we've talked
about speed, we'll talk about silence and and if you don't know by now the next
thing you should consider is repetition. Repetition. Not too often but to
highlight an important point it;s quite effective. another technique is for
adding a stress on individual words so for example. "You've got your flour,
you've got your sugar, you've got your butter, you've got your chocolate, let's
make cookies!
Here are a few general points to help build your presentation. Always
give examples. preferably in the form of stories to back up your point. People
love stories and they also easier to remember than cold facts. So for example,
instead of saying how sales are picking up by X percent you could talk about how
one sale made a great improvement to the life of mrs. Perkins. Let's look at some
of the tricks of the English language that will help improve your presentation.
Firstly, and this relates to the word stressing that we talked about earlier,
is the emphatic DO. When you stress that do in an affirmative
sentence. If you're not sure what the emphatic DO is then check out our
video up here for more details. Anyway let's have a look at some examples.
"I DO think you should consider meditating for at least one hour a day." I
do hope that you will remember these important tips. I did notice that last
time I gave them presentation you were all crying tears of joy.
Inversion
This is not on English grammar video but very briefly inversion is when you
switch the pronoun and the verb in a sentence as if you're forming a question
but it's not only used for questions you can use it to emphasize a phrase the
rules of inversion apply in a few cases where sentences begin
with a NEGATIVE phrase or a word such as NOT ONLY or NEVER and it's a very powerful way of
making a point so for example: "Not only without product make you rich, it will
make you happy too." "Not only does she tease finance, she also plays the banjo."
and with NEVER. "Never have I been so convinced of anything in all my life!"
Finally there are a few expressions that work really well in the presentations.
Here are a small selection. You don't need to use them all but they may be
helpful especially if English is not your first language. FIRST AND FOREMOST.
which means it's at the beginning and it's the most important thing. "First and
foremost I would like to tell you about a conversation that changed my life." TO
GET OFF TO A FLYING START. which means to have a successful beginning to something.
"Our app got off to a flying start with 1 million downloads in the first 12 days."
IN A NUTSHELL. This means in summary "in a nutshell we must consume less and stop
polluting the atmosphere."
BE THAT AS IT MAY. This means it's true but... "People say
that I'm old, I'm rude, I'm behind the times be that as it may and I still run
the company."
OFF THE CUFF which means to speak without notes. "Today I've torn up
my speech and I'm talking to you off-the-cuff."
A BALLPARK FIGURE. This
means an imprecise figure "We don't have all the data yet but sales are expected
to reach 2 million units by next year just give you a ballpark figure." Of
course, there are many many expressions you can use but this is just to give you
a few useful ones that you might not know.
Well those are the tips it's only
left for me to give you an example. Now my presentation it's going to be
relatively short it's just to give you an idea
and by the way when you start a presentation try not to start with "thank
you for coming" or "hello everybody" or "can you hear me" or "one two one two, one two,
one two" just get on with it.
Look at this you know Groucho Marx once said "outside of a dog, a book is a man's
best friend.
inside of a dog, it's to dark to read." Beyond the absurdity of the joke a
book is your good friend. Now, I know you're a busy person
you've got work, you've got friends, you've got things to do around the house
and all those social media posts to interact with. But put that phone down
for a moment switch off YouTube and read a book. Not
right now wait until you've finished watching this video and all my other
videos. Anyway one hour a day. Read for one hour a day is that too much to ask
there is nothing else out there they can fire our imagination, enrich your mind,
give you knowledge, relieve stress, entertain, build your vocabulary, take you
to another universe - literally and, and make you a smarter person. I can hear you
tutting, I can see you rolling your eyes. I'm too busy but make it make it an
experiment and you'll see it'll change your life.
One hour, that's not too much. Time in the metro, waiting for your dental
appointment, one chapter before you go to bed.
hey I thought this was supposed to
be a business presentation. This has got nothing to do with business. Ah! well
that's where you're wrong not only will it help your relationships, it'll help
your business too. Leaders are readers, leaders are readers. You can read books
specifically about business, that's fine but a well-written novel will work just
as well or even better. It'll help you express your creative ideas in a way
that inspires. That's how you win customers, that's how you get followers,
that's how you influence. So for your business to succeed, forget about "The Art
of the Deal" by Donald Trump try "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas
Hardy or "The secret History" by Donna Tartt. If you want your
muscles to grow you push your body to the limits with weights at the gym. If
you want your brain to grow you read things that challenge you intellectually.
Reading is a workout for your mind. Bill Gates reads over an hour each night
before going to bed. Would Microsoft be they're so successful if he hadn't? I
don't think so. He might have ended up as a used car salesman on the outskirts of
Seattle. Warren Buffett reads 500 pages a day
Elon Musk read science fiction novels for 10 hours a day when he was young and
even now he reads lots of books. So books don't guarantee happiness but they will
give you the tools and the wherewithal to succeed. Books will change you in ways
that you could never imagine. In a nutshell, read. Get it into your head