How to Give an Informative Presentation: What to say and do

Hey, how are you? Welcome back. In today's lesson, it's a lesson on presenting. I do

have another lesson on this site, which is presenting where you're really sort of trying

to sell an idea. This is a slightly different type of presentation. In this one, we're going

to be looking at being more objective and just presenting information. Now, I've got

a friend who works for one of the top banks in London, and he has found that presenting

has been very difficult, and it's proving to be an obstacle in his career progression.

So even native speakers can find this difficult. Okay, so at the beginning of a presentation,

it's useful to spell out the current situation. Where are we now? Where we at? So, where we're

at at the moment is, or at the moment we are. Yep. Make people aware. Yep. Whatever the

project is, where is the starting point? I think it's interesting to consider where we

put the stress in a sentence. Let's look at this sentence, here. "What I can tell you

is that such and such a company has increased their investment in our company." "What I

can tell you is", because we're emphasizing "can", it suggests that this particular information,

we have permission to hear, but there is other information that there is no permission to

share. So, this person is holding something back. Yep. They've got something, some kind

of secret that they're not sharing. So, if we don't want that to be the meaning, then

don't put the emphasis, here. "What I can tell you is that", "What I can tell you is

that", okay? So, where you put the emphasis changes the meaning of a sentence.

Okay, next phrase. "What I'd like to be able to say is that in the second quarter sales

targets were met, but the reality is that they were missed by 2%." Okay? So, what was

the goal that was trying to be met? Was it successful or not? How would we change this

if it was positive? So, instead of "What I'd like to be able to say", we would say "What

I can tell you is", or "What I can report back is that the sales targets were 14% and

we managed to achieve them." Okay? So, "I'd like to be able to", if it's something that

wasn't achieved, or "can" if it was something that was. Confusing.

Okay, moving on. You want to give an indication of what you are going to talk about. All right?

So, let me just give you a rough idea of... Let me just give you a rough idea of what

I'm going to be talking about today. I'm going to tell you about this, I'm going to tell

you about this, I'm going to tell you about this. Perhaps it would be a good idea if I

gave you an overview of the market in Africa, what is happening in Africa. So, what you're

doing is you're using a sentence to introduce what you're going to talk about. Okay? Perhaps

it would be a good idea if... Perhaps. This makes it like a choice, but actually you are

making the choice. There is no choice. You're just pretending there is.

Let me just give you a rough idea of... I gave the example of what I'm going to be talking

about, or let me give you a rough idea of what is happening in the sector of the economy.

I don't know. I'm just going to touch on. That means I'm going to talk about, but in

a small amount of detail. I'm just going to touch on what is happening in North America,

but mainly I will be focusing on the situation in Europe. Okay? What are you going to be

talking about?

Now, I have covered this in other videos, but let's have a look at other ways of saying

"thanks". I know that. I've already thought about that. So, if we have an interruption,

"thanks", put their name, if you know their name. Yeah, I was coming to that. You're quite

right, but I will deal with that a little bit later. That's okay. I was coming to that.

That means in the plan for the speech, yep, going to talk about sausages here, but the

man is asking for you to talk about sausages here, and it's like, no, I was coming to the

sausage bit, but not yet. Yeah, you're quite right, I need to. So, if someone says, can

you share with us the statistics for sausage making in Germany? Like, yeah, yeah, you're

quite right, I do need to show you that, and maybe you have the information, maybe you

don't. If you don't have the information, then yeah, you're quite right, I can share

that with you after the meeting. Yeah, not right now.

That's a good point. So, this filler just gives you a little bit of sort of thinking

time. I'm not suggesting that you pepper your speech with fillers, but sometimes you may

need them just to think on your feet and find an answer.

More difficult questions. Again, these phrases are designed to give you some thinking time.

So, if you can learn them, then you can almost say them automatically, and then you're thinking,

okay, that's the answer. Well, that's an interesting question. Yeah. So, in that first sentence,

I'm not actually answering the question, I'm just going, mm, thinking. What I'd say is,

and now I'm giving my answer. Sorry, could you repeat that? I don't think everyone heard.

This is a great way of giving yourself some thinking time, because you're not actually

doing any talking here. You've got someone else doing the talking, so you're totally

free to think of the answer. So, so-and-so said a question, and you're pretending that

not everyone heard this question, so they repeat it.

So, when we do face an interruption from the audience when you're giving this informative

presentation, the main thing you need to do is keep in control of who's talking. You don't

want it to everyone start talking and arguing amongst themselves. So, if they ask a difficult

question straight away, I'm afraid I don't have that information to hand, but I can find

it out shortly after this and give it to you straight away.

And then move on. Go back to what you were talking about. Another way of saying that,

could I get back to you on that one? It's an interesting question. Back to the agenda.

Yep. Don't let people take you off what you're there to talk about. I can double-check that

if you like. Again, interesting question. Thanks very much. Yep, say their name. Thanks

very much. You know, we should definitely think about that.

If someone makes you say something that you have already said, then you might want to

say, "Well, as I've already said, Chelsea are the best team in London." Or, "Yes, as

I pointed out a little bit earlier, Chelsea are the best team in London." Are we going

to have some furious comment saying that Chelsea aren't the best team? Okay. Yeah, well, I

mean, this is what I was saying at the beginning of my talk. So, you can see here that I'm

using conversational fillers. Obviously, you wouldn't do them... Do that in formal written

English and you don't want to have too much of it, but I'm just writing it down how people

often actually speak.

If a question is slightly annoying and you want that person to, you know, quieten down

and you want to be a little firmer, do you mind if we deal with that later? Quite similar

to up here. Or, I don't really want to go into too much detail at this stage. Yep. This

phrase here is a little kind of disapproving. Yep. It's saying, "I'm in charge of this.

You've asked me a slightly silly question. Can everyone stop asking silly questions because

I have something important to say?" So, where are we at? Yeah? That's how we start a presentation.

Where are we at? You have just watched a video on how to do... How to give an informative

presentation. You'll find that on my channel that there are lots of different videos to

do with presentation skills, the voice work, the different phrases that you can use. So,

if you've enjoyed this, do check out the other ones. It would be great if you could subscribe

to my channel, and you also need to do the... Allow the notifications by ringing on the

bell. And if you'd like any extra help from me, then honeyourenglish.com is the place

to go. Thanks for watching.