Presentation Skills

SPEAKING HELP: Signpost Language in Presentations

Signpost language is the words and phrases that a speaker uses to tell the audience what has just happened, and what
is going to happen next, guiding the audience through the presentation. A good presenter will usually use a lot of signpost
language to make the presentation effective, interesting and easy to follow. Below is a list of useful expressions that you
can use to signpost the various parts of your presentation.

INTRODUCTION
Greeting the audience
- Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone/colleagues...
- Thank you very much for inviting me to speak here today.
- I am honored to have the opportunity to share with you here today…
- I am happy to have this chance to speak to you today about...

Introducing yourself
- For those of you who do not know me, I am....
- Let me begin by introducing myself.
- As most of you know, I am....

Introducing the topic

- The subject/topic of my talk is ...
- I'm going to talk about ...
- My topic today is…
- My talk is concerned with ...
- I am here today to present…
- My purpose in this presentation…
- I would like to discuss/talk about/introduce…

Overview of presentation
- I have divided my talk into three parts.
- There are a number of points I'd like to make.
- First, I’ll explain XXX and then I’ll move on to talk about...
- I'd like to begin/start by ...
- First of all, I’d like to draw your attention to… and then I’ll go on to …

BODY
Starting a new section Analyzing a point
- Moving on now to …/ Now we'll move on to... - Where does that lead us?
- Let me turn now to... / Turning to... - Let's consider this in more detail...
- I'd like now to discuss... - What does this mean for...?
- Let's look now at... - Why is this important?
- So let me start by explaining… - The significance of this is...
- So I’ll start with...
- Next I’ll talk about… Giving examples
- The next issue/topic/area I’d like to focus on … - For example,...
- I’d like to expand/elaborate on … - A good example of this is...
- An example at this point will better clarify what I mean.
Finishing a section - To give you an example,...
- Now that we have seen ...., let me move on to... - To illustrate this point, let’s have a look at...
- Having covered ...., now let’s turn our attention to...
- That's all I have to say about...
- Well, up to now I've told you about...
- So far, we've looked at...

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Referring backwards and forwards Paraphrasing and clarifying

- You’ll remember I said... - Simply put...
- Just to repeat what I said earlier, - In other words.......
- As I mentioned earlier... - So what I’m saying is....
- Do you remember I said...? - To put it more simply....
- I’ll talk more about this later. - To put it another way....
- Don’t worry if this isn’t so clear now,
I’ll explain the details later
- Can I come back to this point?

CONCLUSION
Summarizing and concluding Invitation to discuss / ask questions
- To sum up .../To summarize... - I’m happy to answer any queries/questions.
- To conclude.../In conclusion .../In short ... - Does anyone have any questions or comments?
- Let's summarize briefly what we've looked at... - Please feel free to ask questions.
- If I can just sum up the main points... - If you would like me to elaborate on any point, please ask.
- Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues - Would you like to ask any questions?
we've covered... - If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.
- So, to remind you of what I’ve covered in this talk, …
- Unfortunately, I seem to have run out of time,
so I’ll conclude very briefly by saying that …..
- I'd like now to recap...
- I’d like to conclude by leaving you with this thought …
- If I may conclude by quoting …

Responding to questions

If you do not know the answer: The question is irrelevant to your main topic:
- That’s a great question. I’ve never thought about - I am afraid this is outside the scope of my talk.
it that way. Does anyone here have any ideas on that? - Thank you for this question but I am not sure I can see
- I do not have that information now. I will make a note how relevant it is in this context. Could you please clarify
and get back to you. what you mean?
- I’m afraid I have no idea! Do you have any suggestions?
The question is beyond your scope and expertise:
The question is not clear: - I do not think I am the right person to answer such a question.
- Sorry, I am not sure I have understood. Perhaps you can reach relevant information from …
- Could you please repeat your question? - I am afraid that is beyond my scope. If I were you I would
- Do you mean….? / Are you asking if … refer to … (give sources/names of experts)
- Let me check I understand you clearly. Do you mean...?
- I’m not sure I’m following you... To check whether your answer is sufficient:
- I hope this answers your question.
To gain some time before you answer: - I hope I have made myself clear.
- Do you mean…? ( ask for clarification) - Does this answer your question?
- Sorry, will you repeat the question please?
- That is a very interesting point. I have never thought
of it that way.

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PRACTICE: Analyzing a Presentation Script

Below is a presentation on how media commercials affect women adversely. Read the presentation carefully
and do the following tasks:

1. Fill in the blanks with the signposts given below.

a. Please take a look at these magazine covers

b. This brings us to the second issue I would like to explore today
c. To verify this, I would like to refer to
d. Well, as you see, this is not a very bright picture that we have in front of us
e. At this point, let me refer to another interesting study carried out by Milkie in 1999
f. These numbers will clearly illustrate my point
g. My aim today is
h. Firstly, I would like to turn our attention to
i. Let’s have a look at this graph which illustrates
j. I will specifically focus on two adverse effects
k. Let me tell you what this means, ladies and gentlemen
l. I would be more than glad to have your questions and comments now.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. As you all know, I am Can Egeli from the department of Industrial
Engineering. I would like to welcome you with this gorgeous view. She is slim, perfectly proportioned-with
beautiful hair, glowing skin, fabulous makeup, and beautiful clothes. Although this may be an ideal that some
strive to achieve, it certainly sets a standard that leaves most women feeling inadequate and unsatisfied with
their bodies. This exploitation of the women’s body is the major cause of the unhappiness of millions of women
today and the media is the number one responsible for that. If you think this is exaggerated, ladies and
gentlemen, (1) . According to Professor Milkie, a sociologist in
Indıana University (1999), the average woman sees 400 to 600 advertisements per day, and by the time she is 60
years old, she has received 40 to 50 million commercial messages through the media .Most of these images
either explicitly or implicitly emphasize the importance of beauty. As a result, women and especially young
generations are bombarded with a beauty ideal that is unrealistic and potentially unhealthy for the vast majority
of women. Therefore, (2) to show you how media commercials
affect women adversely through their unrealistic portrayal of the beauty image. (3)
:

1. Distorted body image and dissatisfaction with one’s physical appearance

2. Unhealthy eating habits

(4) how commercials on media can lead to a distorted body image

and dissatisfaction with one’s physical appearance. Thomson in his book Exacting Beauty: Theory, Assessment,
and Treatment of Body Image Disturbance (1999) , claims that pressure to be thin from one’s social environment
encourages body dissatisfaction because repeated messages that one is not thin enough are expected to
produce discontent with physical appearance. These pressures to be thin can emerge from a variety of sources,
such as parents, peers, dating partners, but the strongest of all these messages comes from the media.
(5) . Cosmopolitan, Elle, several teenage magazines, even those
about healthy living and sports use ideal beauties in their covers. They may write about the fact that you do not
have to be thin to be healthy, but they stop short of picturing anyone with a little extra weight. The result is
women who do not want to look in the mirror and who dislike their bodies. (6)
. According to her findings, 50% of advertisements in teen girl magazines and 56%
of television commercials aimed at female viewers used beauty as a means to attract customers. In conclusion,
all these expert opinions and research findings clearly demonstrate that the beauty ideal depicted in commercials
and ads in the media to sell products is actually creating insecure generations.

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Being discontent with one’s appearance and not liking how you look also entail certain physical symptoms as a
result and (7) . Being exposed to unrealistic portrayal of beauty
through media also leads to unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders. As advertising and entertainment has
shifted toward thinner and thinner models, a rise in eating disorders has developed. Advertisements today
emphasize thinness as a standard for female beauty more than ever. There is a huge difference between the ideal
beauty portrayed 20 years ago and today. (8) .
how big the gap between past and present is. As you can clearly see here, 20 years ago there was only 8 %
difference between ideal weight and an average weight of a woman. However, today’s fashion models weigh
23% less than the average female as revealed in the January 2012 issue of PLUS Model Magazine. (9)
. A young woman between the ages of 18-34 has a seven percent
chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and only a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel. It is a
standard that is almost impossible to meet. Therefore, this leads women into unhealthy weight-control habits no
matter what the cost is. (10) the 2012 findings of the American research
group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders. They report that one out of every four college-aged women
uses unhealthy methods of weight control-including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse,
and self-induced vomiting. Today, more than ever, adolescents are prone to concerns about their weight, shape,
size and body image, and as a result, diet to lose weight.
(11) . Our teenagers and young women are under constant
exposure to an unrealistic idea of beauty and they have already started to suffer from the consequences. Now,
more often than ever, we come across with young girls and young women who are dissatisfied with their body
and try to find a way out in unhealthy weight-control methods. It is our responsibility to promote a healthy
environment where our children will stop starving themselves and start learning to love and accept themselves for
who they are inside. As a famous saying goes: "All that glitters isn't gold”. Thank you for your attention.
(12) .For those of you who are interested, here is my reference list:

REFERENCES

Beauty and Body Image in the Media. (2012, February 15) Retrieved June 23, 2012
from http://earthreview.eu/2012/02/beauty-and-body-image-in-the-media/

Hargreaves, D. (2002). Idealized Women in TV Ads Make Girls Feel Bad. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 21, 287-308.

Milkie, M. A. (1999). Social comparisons, reflected appraisals, and mass media: The impact of pervasive beauty images.
Journal of Social Psychology, 62, 290-311.

Models 'weigh 23% less than the average women. (2012) . Retrieved June 23, 2012
from http://www.healthinheels.co.uk/diet-and-nutrition/2012/01/11/models-weigh-23-less-than-the-average-women

Thompson, M. (1999). Exacting beauty: Theory, assessment, and treatment of body image disturbance.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

2. Now analyze parts of the presentation script and answer the questions below in the light of what you
have studied so far about parts of a presentation:

Introduction:
1. Does the introduction include all the necessary components?
2. Is the introduction effective in terms of the attention-getting technique?
3. Is there a smooth transition among the components of the introduction?

Body:
1. Which supporting techniques have been used in the body paragraphs?
2. Are the supporting techniques smoothly integrated into the body of the speech?
3. What kind of language is used to introduce the supports?
Conclusion:
1. Does the conclusion include all the necessary components?
2. Is the conclusion effective in terms of providing a closure and making a memorable impact on the audience?
3. Is there a smooth transition among the components of the conclusion?

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