Language Checklist

The introduction to a presentation

Greeting
Good morning / afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
(Ladies and) Gentlemen ...

Subject
I plan to say a few words about ... 
I'm going to talk about ...
The subject of my talk is ...
The theme of my presentation is ... 
I'd like to give you an overview of ...

Structure
I've divided my talk into (three) parts. 
My talk will be in (three) parts.
I'm going to divide ...
First ...
Second …
Third ...
In the first part ...
Then in the second part ...
Finally …

Timing
My talk will take about ten minutes.
The presentation will take about two hours ... but there'll be a twenty minute break in the middle. We'll stop for lunch at 12 o’clock.

Policy on questions / discussion
Please interrupt if you have any questions. 
After my talk there'll be time for a discussion and any questions.

The main body

Signalling different parts in a presentation: 
Ending the introduction
So that concludes the introduction.
That's all for the introduction.

Beginning the main body
Now let's move to the first part of my talk, which is about ...
So, first ... 
To begin with ...

Listing
There are three things to consider. First ... Second ... Third ...
There are two kinds of ... . The first is ... The second is ...
We can see four advantages and two disadvantages. First, advantages.
One is ... Another is ... A third advantage is ... Finally ...
On the other hand, the two disadvantages. First ... Second ...

Linking: Ending parts within the main body 
That completes / concludes ...
That's all (I want to say for now) on ...

Linking: Beginning a new part
Let's move to (the next part which is) ... 
So now we come to ...
Now I want to describe ...

Sequencing
There are (seven) different stages to the process.
First / then / next / after that / then (x) /after x there's y, last ...
There are two steps involved. The first step is ...  The second step is ... 
There are four stages to the project.
At the beginning, later, then, finally ... 
I'll describe the development of the idea.
First the background, then the present situation, and then the prospects for the future.

The end of the presentation	

Ending the main body of the presentation 
Right, that ends (the third part of) my talk. 
That's all I want to say for now on ...

Beginning the summary and/or conclusion 
I'd like to end by emphasising the main point(s).
I'd like to finish with ...
- a summary of the main points.
- some observations based on what I've said. 
- some conclusions / recommendations.
- a brief conclusion.

Concluding
There are two conclusions / recommendations.
What we need is ...
I think we have to ...
I think we have seen that we should ...

Inviting questions and/or introducing discussion
That concludes (the formal part of) my talk. (Thanks for listening) ... Now I'd like to invite your comments.
Now we have (half an hour) for questions and discussion. 
Right. Now, any questions or comments? 
So, now I'd be very interested to hear your comments.

Handling questions 

Understood but difficult or impossible to answer 
That's a difficult question to answer in a few words.
- It could be ...
- In my experience ...
- I would say ...
- I don't think I'm the right person to answer that. Perhaps (Mr Holmes) can help ...
- I don't have much experience in that field ...

Understood but irrelevant or impossible to answer in the time available
I'm afraid that's outside the scope of my talk / this session. If I were you, I'd discuss that with ...
I'll have to come to that later, perhaps during the break as we're short of time.

Not understood
Sorry, I'm not sure I've understood. Could you repeat?
Are you asking if ... ?
Do you mean ... ?
I didn't catch (the last part of) your question. If I have understood you correctly, you mean ... ? Is that right?

Checking that your answer is sufficient 
Does that answer your question?
Is that okay?

Using visuals

Types of visual support 
visual (n.)
film / video
picture
diagram
chart
pie chart
- segment
table graph
- x axis / horizontal axis
- y axis / vertical axis
- left hand / right hand axis 
line graph
- solid line
- dotted line
- broken line

Equipment
	computer and projector
	loudspeakers
overhead projector (OHP) 
- transparency (Br. Eng.)  slide (Am. Eng.)
flip chart
whiteboard

Introducing a visual
I’d like to show you ...
Have a look at this ...
This (graph) shows / represents ... 
Here we can see ...
Let's look at this ...
Here you see the trend in ...

Comparisons
This compares x with y.
Let's compare the ...
Here you see a comparison between ...

Describing trends
to go up		to go down		
to increase	an increase	to decrease	a decrease	
to rise	a rise	to fall	a fall	
to climb	a climb	to decline	a decline	
to improve	an improvement	to deteriorate	a deterioration	
to recover	a recovery			
to get better	an upturn	to get worse	a downturn	
to level out	a levelling out			
to stabilise				
to stay the same				
to reach a peak	a peak	to reach a low point		
to reach a maximum		to hit bottom	a trough	
to peak				
to undulate	an undulation			
to fluctuate	a fluctuation			

Describing the speed of change 
a dramatic	
increase / fall	
to increase / fall	dramatically 	
a marked			markedly 	
a significant			slightly 	
a slight			significantly