where the green grass grow: Effective Public Speaking

Survival Language

In giving presentations, stage fright sometimes sets in and gets us off track. One way to avoid this, is by looking for a friend in the audience. Face your audience as people and connect with them. Of course, some of them would give the "impress me" look.So don't focus on those people too much. Look around for people with the "you can do it" look and be encouraged. To feel comfortable, you would need confidence. Those kind ladies with inspiring smiles have the ability to give you that. And when you get all the confidence you need, then you may remember the following language to handle situations effectively.

If you get your facts wrong.

I am terribly sorry. What I meant to say was this.
Sorry. What I meant is this.

If you have been going too fast and your audience is having trouble keeping up with you.

Let me just recap on that.
I want to recap briefly on what I have been saying.
If you have forgotten to make a point.
Sorry, I should just mention one other thing.
If I can just go back to the previous point, there is something else that I forgot to mention.

If you have been too complicated and want to simplify what you said.

So, basically, what I am saying is this.
So, basically, the point I am trying to get across is this.
If you realize that what you are saying makes no sense.
Sorry, perhaps I did not make that quite clear.
Let me rephrase that to make it quite clear.

If you cannot remember the term in English.

Sorry, what is the word I am looking for?
Sorry, my mind has gone blank. How do you say 'escargot' in English?

If you are short of time.

So just to give you the main points.
As we are short of time, this is just a quick summary of the main points.

Signposting

When you are giving a presentation, there are certain key words to use to ’signpost’ different stages in our presentation. These words are not difficult to learn but it is absolutely essential that you memorize them and can use them when you are under pressure giving a presentation.

When you want to make your next point, you ‘move on’.

Moving on to the next point.
I’d like to move on to the next point if there are no further questions

When you want to change to a completely different topic, you ‘turn to’.

I’d like to turn to something completely different.
Let’s turn now to our plans for next year.

When you want to give more details about a topic you ‘expand’ or ‘elaborate’.

I’d like to expand more on this problem we have in education.
Would you like me to expand a little more on that or have you understood enough?
I don’t want to elaborate any more on that as I’m short of time.

When you want to talk about something which is off the topic of your presentation, you ‘digress’.

I’d like to digress here for a moment and just say a word of thanks to Bob for organizing this meeting.
Digressing for a moment, I’d like to say a few words about our problems in the department of education.

When you want to refer back to an earlier point, you ‘go back’.

Going back to something I said earlier, the educational system of this country needs reform.
I’d like to go back to something Jenny said in her presentation.

To just give the outline of a point, you ’summarize’.