As a professional who speaks an advanced level of English you will eventually need to give a formal presentation in English.
Don't panic.
That's the first rule.
The second rule is to prepare and practice, practice, practice.
In this article I will give you some important advice and key expressions to help you give a great presentation.
A former student was asked by his boss to give the keynote address at the company's annual international sales conference.
Diogo contacted me because he had never had to give a formal presentation in English before.
I asked Diogo who his audience would be.
He responded that it would be sales representatives and their bosses from around the world.
For me, that meant that they all would be able to understand any technical language he would use in his presentation.
Diogo compiled all the information he was going to talk about in his presentation.
We worked together and created a professional presentation.
After Diogo had finalized his slides with charts, graphs, statistics and so forth, we worked on his speech.
I provided him with a list of expressions.
Here is that list: Outlining the Structure: I'll divide my talk up into...
First of all I'll...
After that, I'll...
I'll conclude with...
Starting the Presentation: I'd like to start by saying...
If I'm talking to fast or you don't understand me, feel free to interrupt.
Making references forward, backward, and sideways: I'll return to...
later As I stated earlier...
I'll talk more about...
in just a moment.
Let me digress for a second,...
Going forward: All right, moving on...
Turning to...
This brings me to...
Making sure that the audience understands: To fill you in on the background...
By...
I mean..
I'm not sure if you're familiar with...
Well,...
refers to...
Perhaps I should explain...
What I mean is...
So, for example...
Concluding the presentation: And this is my key point.
To sum up...
I'll take any questions now...
We made a list of words he had a difficult time pronouncing.
I had Diogo re-write his speech writing the phonetic spelling after the difficult words.
He gave his presentation to me again and again.
Each time he kept improving.
Diogo went home and practiced his presentation out loud seven times a day for two weeks.
When he returned, he gave me his presentation once again.
Wow! His presentation was incredible.
He spoke naturally.
Diogo finally went to Brazil and gave his presentation.
After he finished, he sent me an email.
He shared that it was the best presentation his boss had ever heard at the international sales conference.
As a result, he got a promotion and a raise.
What was Diogo's secret in giving an incredible presentation? He learned and used expressions, not vocabulary and grammar rules.
He practiced seven times a day for two weeks.
This gave him confidence.
He reviewed his pronunciation with a native speaker.
This improved his fluidity.
He worked hard and succeeded.