Presentations: openings and signposting For more English tutorials, please visit: https://www.thelecturette.com

1. Giving Presentations
Openings, Signposting

2. Effective Openings
• The first three minutes of a presentation
are the most important.
• The speaker needs a ‘hook’, a simple
technique for getting attention.
• A good start makes the speaker feel
confident.

3. Effective Openings
• Three ways of ‘hooking’ your audience:
– Give them a problem to think about.
– Give them some amazing facts.
– Give them a story or a personal anecdote.

4. Effective Openings
• Problem Technique
1. Suppose ……………………………………
How would you ……………………………
2. Have you ever wondered why it is that …..?
You have? Well, if I could show you ………
….. would you be interested?
3. How many people here this morning ……..?
Well, imagine ………………………………
….. Do you think that is possible?

5. Effective Openings
• Amazing Facts Technique
1.Did you know that ………………………..?
2.According to the latest study, ………..….,
3.Statistics show that ………………………..
4.I read somewhere the other day that ……

6. Effective Openings
• Story/ Anecdote Technique
1.You know, ………………………………..
When I think about ……………………….
I’m reminded of …………………………..
2.Have you ever been in a situation where
…………….?
I remember when …………………………
It turned out ……………………………….

7. Signposting
• What you say - the content - is more
important than anything else.
• Structure helps
• When moving to the next point or when
changing direction, tell the audience.

8. Signposting
• Signposts to guide your audience
through your presentation:
To move on To expand on
To digress To go back
To recap To conclude
To summarize To turn to
To elaborate on

9. Signposting
• Neat, short signposts are more
effective.
• Keep it simple
OK. So ……………..

10. Signposting
• Neat, short signposts are more
effective.
• Keep it simple
OK. So ……………..