Unit 16. Presentations

16.1. Listening Development

Assignment 1. Listen to the recording to Unit 16 looking at the language of presentations. Business English expert David Evans reassures listeners claiming that presentations don’t have to be such a huge ordeal if the presenter is properly prepared. Do the tasks below.

1. Two examples of the beginning of presentations are given. Say what they have in common.

2. That is a typical pattern to begin a presentation. Listen to the first two examples again and put down the exact wording at each stage.

Standard stages	Presentation 1	Presentation 2
Greetings
Saying thanks for coming
Introduction
Stating the purpose of the presentation
Giving the outline of the presentation
Inviting questions from the audience

3. The body of a presentation is its main part. True or false?

4. Presenters resort to visual aids to illustrate their points. True or false?

5. Fill in the gaps with the phrases the two speakers used to draw the attention of the audience.

Presentation 1

“____________________________________________ you can see that our sales topped 50 million the year before last. Then last year sales dropped to 40 million with a slight recovery at the end of the financial year. However this year sales have continued to drop to an all time low of 30 million. ______________________________________ As you can see we have 25% of the market share, 10% down on last year.”

Presentation 2

_________________________________ how important internal communications are, is shown by some findings from research that we have recently undertaken. Good communications is a very key factor in staff motivation. _________________________________________, you will see how important it is to get the basics in place. You need to identify your communication requirement, agree your objectives and success criteria, identify your target audiences, define the content of your message, and determine the style of delivery. _________________________________ the communication process is when all those basics fall into place naturally.

6. How do presentations typically end?

7. How did Tim signal that it was question time?

8. What did Tim say handing the questions to make those who asked them feel valued and wanted?

16.2. Vocabulary Enrichment

Assignment 1. What are the purposes of these expressions? Which of them are synonymous? Which of them are used when showing visuals (charts, graphs, diagrams, etc.)

1 I'd like us to focus our attention on ...

2 What is interesting/important here is ...

3 I'm sure the implications are clear to all of us ...

4 The figures in this table show ...

5 It is important to notice that ...

6 The take-home message here is ...

7 We can conclude that ...

8 This chart compares ...

9 I'd like you to think about ...

10 If you look at the top right-hand corner ...

11 The lesson we can learn from this is ...

12 The blue dotted line represents ...

13 The top half shows ...

14 Now, I'll show you ...

15 Let's move on now and look at the figures for ...

16 The significance of this is ...

17 I would like you to concentrate on this green column ...

18 The next overhead shows ...

19 As we can see ...

20 The vertical axis represents ...

Assignment 2. Put the following phrases from a presentation in the right order. Write numbers in the boxes.

 I’d like us to focus our attention on two things on this chart.

 OK, let’s get started. Can everybody see?

 Right, that brings me to the end of my presentation.

 Right, let’s begin with the first slide.

 I’ll come back to this in a moment.

 Now, do you have any questions?

 This leads me to my third point, which is …

 Just to summarize the main points again before I finish.

Assignment 3. Fill in the gaps with the prepositions from the box.

about at back in in in into for of on on on on to to to with

1. Take a look ______ this picture. What does it tell you ______ our company?

2. I've divided my talk ______ four main parts.

3. Right, let's begin ______ the first slide.

4. Let's move ______ the second point.

5. This leads me ______ my third main point.

6. I'll come ______ this in a moment. ('on' is possible in #6, but isn't the answer here.)

7. My own view ______ this is simple. (‘of’ is possible in #7, but isn't the answer here)

8. I think there are three questions to focus ______.

9. As you can see ______ this next slide, ... I ('in' is possible in #9, but isn't the answer here.)

10. So, ______ conclusion, I hope that my talk has given you a good overview ______ our company.

11. Thank you all ______ coming.

12. Here's my email address ______ case you want to get ________touch.

Assignment 4. Complete the sentences with the pairs of words in the box.

anyone /comments brings / end digress / moment

examine / detail explain / again explain / concrete

highlight/ diagram question / opinion scope / afterwards

time / question useful / background start / introducing

1 Let me _____________ by _____________ myself.

2 Just to _____________ for a _____________.

3 It might be _____________ to give a little _____________ here.

4 Let's _____________ this in more _____________.

5 Let me _____________ with a _____________ example.

6 I'd like to _____________ two things on this _____________.

7 Does _____________ have any _____________?

8 Right, that _____________ me nearly to the _____________ of my presentation.

9 Sorry, can you _____________ that _____________ ?

10 That's an interesting _____________. What's your own _____________?

11 I think that's outside the _____________ of this presentation, but I'm happy to discuss it with you _____________.

12 OK, I think there's _____________ for one last _____________.

Assignment 5. Underline the correct words in italics in this extract from an internal presentation.

This next chart shows sales for our two main product lines, the Micro range and the Neka range. ¹Mark / Notice the scale on the vertical ²axis / axle - it shows the number of ³units / unities sold in thousands per month.

I'd like to ⁴draw I make your attention firstly to the black line, which shows sales of the Micro range. You can see how last year sales ⁵rose / have risen ⁶steady / steadily all through the year. Since the beginning of this year they ⁷continued / have continued to rise, ⁸although / in spite of at a slower pace.

On balance, these results are good - ⁹steady / steadily ¹⁰grow /growth is what we like to see. This generally positive picture is ¹¹due to /due from the performance and reliability of the Micro range, and the fact that our competitors have been slow to respond. ¹²Even so / Even though, we cannot be complacent. We have to build on this success going forward, and I want our sales teams to really focus ¹³about /on the Micro range ¹⁴over /from the next few months.

I'm going to set an ambitious target - to take sales of Micro products from their current level of 30,000 per month ¹⁵to / until a ¹⁶figure / number of 35,000 by the end of the year.

OK, now let's ¹⁷look at / look to the purple line on the chart, which shows sales of the Neka range. As you know, we launched this range in December of last year, and sales ¹⁸took off / were taking off immediately. For the first few months things ¹⁹were really looking good / had really looked good. We were expecting this because we ²⁰were doing / had done a lot of market research before the launch. ²¹However / Whereas, for no obvious reason, there ²²was / has been a ²³sudden /suddenly ²⁴drop / reduce in sales in recent weeks. The question is this: can we find out the ²⁵motives / reasons and what can we do ²⁶about /for it?

In a moment I'm going to open up the discussion and ask for your ²⁷comments / commentaries. But the implications are clear: it's ²⁸high / highly ²⁹'chance / likely that we won't meet our target of 25,000 ³⁰by / for the end of the year.

Assignment 6. The language of trends is used to describe movements in financial indicators (e.g., profits or costs), sales and marketing indicators( e.g., sales and market shares), and economic indicators (e.g., interest rates and unemployment, etc.) Draw charts next to explain these group of words.

1. Movement up and down: go up, increase, rise, go down, decrease, fall

2. Smaller movement up and down: edge up, edge down, dip

3. Stability and instability: stay the same, be flat, fluctuate, vary, move within a range

4. Larger movement up and down: double, take off, boom, increase tenfold, halve, plunge, crash

5. High points and low turning points: peak, reach a peak, hit a low

6. Individual points on a graph: stand at, be above, be below

7. Change in size: grow, expand, shrink, contract

8. Good / bad: improve, get better, recover, deteriorate, get worse (mind the difference in showing how sales improved, and how inflation improved)

9. Speed: quickly, rapidly, gradually, steadily, slowly

10. Amount: considerably, significantly, moderately, to some extent slightly, marginally

Assignment 7. Translate into English’

1. Sales _____________ (оставались) at €1.2m.

2. Sales _____________ (выросли) by €0.2m that is by 25%

3. Sales _____________ (поднялись с) €2.2 to €1.4m.

4. There was an _____________ (рост) in sales of €0.2mю

5. Things were easier in the company a few years ago, while profits _____________ (возрастали).

6. Before the CEO resigned profits _____________ (уже упали) by 20% in a year.

7. Prices _____________ (поднялись ) lately because of higher materials costs.

8. Our competitors _____________ (столкнутся с) the same problems as us.

9. Sales rose ______ (на) 2% last quarter.

10. Profits have plunged _____________ (значительно) this year.

11. Inflation _____________ (ухудшается) at the moment.

12. I'm sure it's _____________ (достигнет своей низшей точки) next month.