A presentation proves that you are able to communicate on a topic of your choice with just a few key words as reminders. In some countries, a presentation is part of the English exam at school (e.g. Eurokom in Germany).
Choose a topic that interests you. First, read about the topic in your native language for necessary background information. At that point you should already plan how you want to organise your presentation. When writing the presentation, you should work with English texts only (that's easier than translating the document in the end). Take short notes only from the English texts, then make your own sentences (short ones if possible).
Structure and Content
- Introduction: General information on the topic
Give your listeners an introduction to the topic (some general information) and explain what exactly you are going to talk about in your presentation.
- Actual Presentation
Subdivide your presentation into several sub-topics, e.g.:
- Presentation on an event: history, present, special customs
- Presentation on a sport: history, rules, important events
- Presentation on a stay in an English speaking country: chronologically
Find a good conclusion (otherwise it would look as if you simply stopped in the middle of your presentation). A good conclusion could be for example:
- How does the event influence our daily lives?
- How important is the event for you personally? / What's your opinion about it?
- What might the future bring?
- a quotation that summarises your presentation
Which tenses to use depends on your topic. Above all you'll probably need the following tenses:
Collect pictures and graphics if possible. They'll help you getting through your presentation without losing the thread. Furthermore, pictures always make a presentation more interesting for the listeners.
Usually you are expected to talk about the topic without reading every sentence from a piece of paper. So practise at home until you can hold the presentation with just a few key words (or pictures) as reminders.
Changed: 05th Mar 2014 13:00