Useful Phrases for Presentations in English
As a lawyer, you will have to deliver many presentations in public but it remains a difficult and daunting task - particularly for somebody who is not a native speaker. In this article by The Legal English School's Erica Jones, we provide you with some phrases to make your presentation run more powerfully.
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Successful Presenting in English
Take a few moments to consider the most recent presentation that you gave in English. What did you like about it? What could you have improved upon? Did you receive any feedback from the audience? Where did you struggle?
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When it comes to your next presentation, we would like you to ask yourself several questions to ensure that you are fully prepared for the moment.
Firstly, consider your audience. Do you know them well? If you do, you can use more informal General English where possible. If you don't know them, then more formal Legal English and Business English expressions should be used.
Whether you use more formal or informal language, it is important to engage the audience through active body language such as keeping your head straight and not slouching. Your Legal English teacher will have exercises that you can do to help you with as well as while working on your intonation and pronunciation.
Phrases You Can Use
Introduction
Good morning/afternoon everyone and welcome to my presentation. First of all, I would like to thank you all for coming here today.
Let me start by saying a few words about myself.
As you can see on the screen, our topic today is......
My talk is particularly relevant to those of you who....
This morning/ afternoon I’m going to take a look at the recent developments in.....
Presentation structure
In my presentation I intend to focus on three major issues.
I've divided my presentation into three parts.
This subject can be looked at under the following headings.....
We can break this area down into the following fields....
Timing
It will take about 20 minutes to cover these issues and then we will have time for a few questions.
Handouts
Does everybody have a handout? (Usually a copy of the Powerpoint slides)
I’ll be handing out copies of the slides at the end of my talk.
I can email the PowerPoint presentation to anyone who would like it.
Don’t worry about taking notes, I’ve put all the relevant notes on a handout for you
Questions
If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them at the end of my talk.
If you don’t mind, I'd like to leave questions until the end of my talk /there will be time for a Question and Answer (Q&A) session at the end...
Sequencing phrases
My first point concerns...
I'd like to begin by...
First of all, I’d like to give you an overview of....
Next, I’ll focus on.....and then we’ll consider....
Let's turn to...
Then I’ll go on to highlight what I see as the main points of....
Finally, I’d like to address the problem of.....
Finally, I’d like to raise briefly the issue of....
Highlighting information
I’d like to put the situation into some kind of perspective
Indeed, this is important.
It is imperative that...
I’d like to discuss in more depth the implications of....
I’d like you to think about the significance of this particular case
Whichever way you look at it, the underlying trend is clear
Conclusion
I’d just like to finish with the words of Winston Churchill/Lord Woolf.......
Let me briefly summarise the main points again.
These phrases should help you to vary your vocabulary for clear, well-structured presentations which follow a logical order. Please ensure that you are comfortable and confident in your delivery, which helps the audience feels relaxed and ready to be engaged by your subject matter.
The Legal English School runs courses for lawyers, notaries, translators and law students that cover all aspects of language and the law (including presentations). For further information, contact us.