Signposting in Presentations In a good presentation, what you say -the content of your talk - is much more important than anything else. But a clear structure helps your audience to follow your train of thought. When you move on to your next point or change direction, tell the audience. You can do this easily and effectively, using simple phrases as 'signposts' to guide the audience through your presentation. 1. to make your next point: to move on (to ...) 2. to change direction: to turn to 3. to refer to an earlier point: to go back 4. to make a short statement giving only the main information and not the details of a report, a study, or a plan: to summarize 5. to give a wider perspective: to expand on 6. to do a deeper analysis: to elaborate on 7. to repeat the main points: to recap 8. to depart from your plan: to digress 9. to finish your talk: to conclude Saying what is com (fling In this part of my paper, I'll inform you about... So, let me first give you a brief overview of... Moving on to the next point This leads me directly to the next part of my talk. This now brings us to my second point. Let's move on to the next issue, (and take a closer look at...) So, I'd now like to turn to my next question. ... and last but not the least... Additionally,... Let me show you a few examples. Indicating the end of a section This brings me to the end of my second point. That's all I wanted to say about... So much for ... So that was the background on ... (and the reasons why ...) I think we have covered everything regarding ... Referring back As I mentioned before,... As I said earlier,... As I pointed out in the first section,... Let's go back to what I said at the beginning of my talk. Let me now come back to my earlier statement on ... Summarizing a point I'd now like to sum up the main points for you. Let me briefly summarize what I've said so far. Before I conclude my talk, let me go through the main issues once more. Introducing the talk I'd like to talk about... I'm going to discuss ... I want to tell you about... What I'd like to do is to explain to you ... What I'm going to do is to describe ... What I want to do is to give an account of... Ordering points (time order) To begin with - At the beginning - At the start Second(ly) - Then - Next - After that Finally - At the end Ordering points (listing and adding) First(ly) - Second(ly) - Third(ly) A second reason - the third aspect Another point - Other factors Also - In addition Last(ly) - Finally Starting a new section Now Moving on to - If we move on to - I'd like to move on to Turning to - If we turn to - I'd like to turn to What...? - Why...? - How...? Which...? Transition Having considered ..., let us now move on to ... So there were our methods. What about our results?? Contrasting But - However - Nevertheless On the other hand - By contrast Referring to visual aids This slide (graph, chart) shows ... Here you can see - Here are - This is Defining By X we man Y. We call X Y. X is defined as Y. We can define X as Y. Rephrasing That is - In other words - To put it another way Giving an example For example - For instance such as - say - like - including To give you an example - An example of this is ... Let me give you an example. Here is an example. Emphasising Actually - in fact - indeed Importantly - suprisingly - interestingly It is clear that - clearly - obviously I'd like to underline - highlight - emphasise - stress It's important to bear in mind - keep in mind - remember Concluding the talk So - Finally To summarise - Summing up - To conclude - In conclusion I'd like to finish by saying ... I'd like to conclude now with a few remarks about... Phrases 1. His interpretation is open to criticism on two main grounds. Post-graduates are advised to keep their options open and not to take the first offer of a university chair they get. 2. strictly true ... You must act strictly in accordance with the wishes of your colleagues in this matter, regardless of what you yourself think. 3. No one takes Prof. Moore seriously any more after the DFG found out that all of this test results were made up by him. But seriously, don't you feel that your approach is too risky nowadays? 4. His papers are so brilliant and entertaining that he never fails to draw a crowd at conferences. Compared to Germany, professors in America draw pretty good salaries. 5. Her laughter broke the tension in the room after the appalling keynote lecture. Our newly patented product broke into several new markets last year. 6. He's very actively involved in stem cell research. It's nice having a boss who actively encourages me to acquire new skills. 7. raise his glass and toast our health ... I raised that question in my paper last year, if you remember! 8. The group fell silent as everone stared in wonder at Dr. Doe's computer simulation. The price of semi-conductors fell sharply last year. 9. be denied access to ... gain access to classified information 10. A lot of seats in the auditorium remained vacant when he gave his talk. Don't just sit there with a vacant expression on your face! 11. I am being continually put upon by the professor I work for. I do all the work and he gets all the credit. When nobody asked him any questions after he had finished his paper, he put it down to the audience's lack of interest in inorganic chemisty. 12. due to & due on (a date) 13. We have devoted a great deal of time to trying to make our new sysem work. The rector was prepared to do a deal with the students to put an end to the crisis.