Unit Three

English for Business Presentation

Unit Three

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Using Your Voice

CHUNKING

The ability to present information in comprehensible chunks is by far the most important presentation skill you need.

To give an effective presentation in English, you must learn to think and speak not in individual words, but in complete phrases. This means pausing in the right places.

INTERESTING

ANYONE can become a successful manager.

But, of course, the unprepared,

the untrained,

and those given too much responsibility

before they're ready

will FAIL.

That's what this morning's presentation

is all about.

DULL

Anyone can become a

successful manager. But, of

course, the unprepared, the

untrained, and those given too

much responsibility before

they're ready will fail.

That's what this morning's

presentation is all about.

Pausing in the wrong place in a presentation sounds like hesitation. But pausing for effect in the right place is a powerful technique.

Obviously, there are places where you can't pause without destrying the meaning of what you are saying. But how frequently you pause is a matter of choice.

Pausing in the wrong place can change the meaning or make you unclear. Be especially careful when you use who and which. For example Half of the people who received a personalized sales letter bought the product. This means that not everyone got a personalized letter, but half of them did bought the product. Now read the sentence but with difference Half of the people who received a personalized sales letter bought the product. Now it means that half of the people got a personalized letter, and they all bought the product. Totally different!

SOUND SCRIPTING

The ability to chunk your speech in a presentation may seem complicated at first, but it will quickly become quite natural. With practice, you will be amazed at how much clearer and more fluent you sound. A good way of getting into the habit of chunking is to write out parts of your presentation as you would present them and then read them aloud.

After knowing where to pause, knowing which words to stress is the most important skill you need when you are presenting to an audience.

Once you are pausing and stressing effectively, start working on your voice and pacing.

PRACTICE READING THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT WITH ALL THE STRESSED WORDS IN BOLD AND HEAVILY STRESSED WORDS IN CAPITALS.

The world's most popular DRINK

is WATER

You probably knew that ALREADY.

After all,

it's a basic requirement of life on EARTH.

But did you KNOW

that the world's SECOND most popular drink

is COKE?

And that the human race drinks

six hundred million Cokes a DAY?

Now, let's just put that into some kind of PERSPECTIVE.

It MEANS
that EVERY WEEK

of EVERY YEAR

people drink enough COKE

to fill the World TRADE Center.

In FACT,

if all the Coca-Cola ever CONSUMED

was poured over Niagara Falls

instead of WATER

it would take nearly TWO DAYS to run DRY.

There's almost nowhere on the PLANET

from MIAMI

to MALAWI,

where the word COKE

isn't instantly RECOGNIZED.

The brand name ALONE

is worth THIRTY BILLION DOLLARS.

And that's what makes COKE

a GLOBAL MARKETING PHENOMENON.


	Sukhothai Commercial College English for Business Presentation 3212-2005