2.2 Multiple connections
In a written text, the title and the introduction can give you a clue as to what the theme of the piece is going to be. Each sentence in the piece will support this theme, and make a point.
In oral presentations, it is also important to think about connecting information by supporting themes with points, and by telling your audience what is coming next.
As you will have noted in the previous section, Bill Davenhall uses a variety of strategies to do this – mostly narrative but also including the use of questions. Bill Davenhall used the phrases, ‘Just think about that…’, ‘Now I’m going to take you on a journey…’, and ‘So then I decided to…’ to keep the listeners on track.
Below is a list of phrases that you could use in your presentations to move from one point to the next one:
- ‘Let me turn now to…’
- ‘Let’s move on to…’
- ‘Turning to…’
- ‘Next…’
- ‘Now let’s look at…’
- ‘I’d now like to…’.
You might like to keep these phrases in mind and try to use them in your talk.
To summarise, in a talk you must use additional links to help the listener keep track of the content and feel a sense of progression through your presentation.
Try writing two sentences and joining them together with linking words or phrases. The second sentence could be:
- an opposite idea (on the other hand, on the contrary, however, but…)
- a consequence (consequently, as a result…)
- a cause (because…)
Do you think the linking phrase you have chosen is effective? Is there a more effective phrase you could use?