Presentations
You must have confidence to present information both verbally and formally to your classmates and teachers, 
to a wider audience. Most presentations at international conferences are informative, not instructional or 
persuasive.
An effective presentation should be organized logically with an introduction, main body and conclusion.
INTRODUCTION
Apart from greetings, introducing your name, position and the subject / title of your presentation, the 
introduction must be designed to gain the attention of the audience by giving the purpose and the main ideas 
of the presentation, the sources of data and the means by which the data was obtained. An invitation to 
questions should also be mentioned. This can last only a minute or two, but remember it will be the first 
impression you will make on your audience.
Useful phrases
Greetings:  Good morning/afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
Position:  Ím a student of ... at the Faculty of... at MU in Brno.
Subject:  Íd like to talk about... Ím going to inform you about... /to present my research...
               The subject/topic of my presentation/talk is ...
Purpose:  The purpose of this talk is to update you on.../put you in the picture of...
                 give you the background to ...                 
Questions: Íd be glad to answer any questions at the end of my talk.
                  Please interrupt me if there's something which needs clarifying. Otherwise
                  there will be time for discussion at the end.
                  If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt.
MAIN BODY
A well constructed main body of text will contain information supporting the development of the main ideas 
given in the introduction. The presenter should avoid including unnecessary text, but he or she may use a 
number of approaches, mainly well designed visuals,  in order to help the audience comprehend the main ideas. 
The main body starts with the outline of the main parts:
Íve divided my presentation into four parts/sections. They are...
The subject can be looked at under the following headings: ....
We can break the topic down into the following fields:
Firstly ... Secondly .... Thirdly .... Finally....
First of all .... Then .... Next .... And then we come to .... Lastly/last of all ....
Introducing and closing the parts:
Part 1: Let´s start with ... So that covers ....  
Part 2: That brings me to ... Let´s leave that here and turn to part 3
Presenters should repeat their key findings (using for example a different form of words):
1. tell the audience what you are going to say
2. say it
3. tell the audience what you have said
ENDING
The conclusion should contain a summary of the data together with a comment on the importance of the 
findings. The main points of the presentation should again be stressed together with a recommendation for 
future research.
Possible structure and vocabulary: signal to end ­ summary­ conclusion with recommending ­ closing ­ 
inviting to questions.
Signalling the end
That brings me to the end of my presentation.
That completes my presentation.
That covers all I wanted to say today.
Before I stop/finish, let me just say ...
Summarizing
Íll briefly summarize the main ideas.
Let me just run over the key points again.
To sum up...
Concluding
In conclusion...
As you can see, there some very good reasons for...
Íd like to leave you with the following idea/thought.
Recommending
So, I would suggest that we ...
In my opinion, the only way forward is ...
Íd like to propose ....(more formal)
Closing
Thank you for your attention/listening.
I hope you have gained an insight into ...
Inviting questions
Íd be glad/happy to (try and) answer any questions.
If you have any questions, Íd be pleased to answer them.
I would welcome any comments/suggestions.
Some good advice: A noted speaker was asked his secret of success. "First," he said, "you write an exciting 
opening that will draw the attention of everyone in the room. Then you compose a dramatic summary and 
closing words that will leave the audience spellbound. Then," he advised," you put them as close together as 
possible.
Academic English, Věra Hranáčová, 2006