Writing an EFFECTIVE presentation introduction. You will learn about presenting in English and presentations in English. I will teach you how to present an introduction in English. You will learn the four parts of a good presentation introduction with presentation introduction example. Learn Business English about giving effective presentations in English. It is important to learn about presentation introductions in English for better English fluency. You will learn about presentation introductions along with how to start a presentation introduction. I will teach you how to write an introduction for a presentation and show you how to give introduction in a presentation.
What makes a good presentation?
This is a question we are going to be answering throughout this series. One of the most basic parts of a good presentation is a good introduction. Your introduction is the first thing your audience will hear you say. It is important to say something interesting that will capture the attention of the audience and will make them want to listen. We are going to talk about the four parts of a good introduction, a greeting, an opener, a topic statement, and a preview.
The first part of a good introduction in English is a greeting.
In a greeting, you should say hello and introduce yourself to your audience. Let us look at two examples of a good greeting.
Number one:
Hello, everyone. I am Sarah and I’m happy to speak with you today.
Number two:
Good afternoon. My name is Lisa. I’m excited to be here with you today.
As you can see, we should say hello, give our name, and connect with the audience.
The second part of a good introduction is an opener. An opener is a hook that can grab the audience’s attention. Let us look at six common types of openers:
a quotation or proverb
a story
a question
a general statement
instruction or task
interesting fact or statistic.
Let us look at some examples of each of these types of openers. We are going to imagine that we are giving a presentation about learning a language.
Number one: a quotation or a proverb.
A Chinese proverb says, to learn a language is to have one more window from which to view the world.
Number two: a story:
Recently, my Korean friend told me that she feels like a different person when she speaks English. This made me curious about what it is like to learn another language.
Number three: a question.
Have you ever tried to learn another language?
Number four: a general statement.
I am sure we all agree that learning another language is not easy.
Number five: instruction or a task.
Please close your eyes. Now, imagine you are in a foreign country and no one speaks the same language as you, OK? Open your eyes.
Number six, an interesting fact, or statistic.
About 43 percent of the world’s population can speak a second language fluently.
These are all excellent ways to catch the audience’s attention and make them want to listen to what you have to say. After we have caught the audience’s attention, we should move on to the third part of a good introduction.
The third part of a good introduction in English is a topic statement.
A topic statement tells the audience the main subject of your presentation. It can be just one sentence that shows what topic you are going to talk about. Let us look at two examples of good topic statements.
Number one:
Today, I want to tell you about my experience learning a second language.
Number two:
Today I am going to share my language learning journey with you.
The last part of a good introduction is a preview. In a preview, you tell the audience what details about the topic you will discuss. It is like a short map of our presentation that shows what points we will stop at along the way. Let us look at some examples of good previews.
Number one:
I will explain how I made the decision to learn another language, what it is like to be a language student, and how it has changed my life.
Number two:
I would like to tell you how I made the decision to learn another language, what it was like to be a language student, and how it has changed my life.
Now that we have looked at all four parts of a good presentation, let’s put it together.
Here are two examples of good introductions.
Introduction example one:
Hello everyone, I am Sarah, and I am happy to speak with you today, a Chinese proverb says: to learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world. Today, I want to tell you about my experience learning a second language. I will explain how I made the decision to learn another language, what it was like to be a language student and how it changed my life.
Introduction example two:
Good afternoon, my name is Lisa. I am excited to be here with you today. Recently, my Korean friend told me that she feels like a different person when she speaks English. This made me curious about what it was like to learn another language. Today, I’m going to share my language learning journey with you. I’d like to tell you how I made the decision to learn another language, what it was like to be a language student, and how it changed my life.
Remember, for a good introduction, we need a greeting, an opener, a topic statement and a preview.
Introduction Guide (4 parts of an introduction)
Greeting (Say hello and introduce yourself): Hello everyone, my name is _____________. I am ___________ to be here with you today.
Opener (get the audience’s attention):
Remember openers can include (watch the video at time 2:09):
A quotation or proverb.
A story.
A question.
A general statement.
An instruction or task.
An interesting fact.
Topic Statement in Presentations (tells the audience the main subject of the presentation). One or two sentences that shows the topic you will talk about. Watch the video at time 4:11.
Preview (tell the audience the details about the topic you will discuss). This part is like at short map that shows the points about your topic that you will discuss. Watch the video at time 4:50.
Example Introduction:
Greeting (Say hello and introduce yourself):
Hello everyone, my name is Lisa. I am excited to be here with you today.
Opener (get the audience’s attention): Recently, my Korean friend told me she feels like a different person when she speaks English. This made me curious about what it was like to learn another language.
Topic Statement (tells the audience the main subject of the presentation).
Today I am going to share my language learning journey with you.
Preview (tell the audience the details about the topic you will discuss).
I will tell you about how I made the decision to learn another language, what it was like to be a language student, and how it has changed my life.
Now write your own presentation below. First, use the brainstorming map to choose a topic and three points about the topic. Your main topic will go in the middle circle. Then brainstorm three or more points to present about the topic.
Brainstorm
(one topic and at least three points)
Topic____________________________________________________________
Point 1:______________________________________________________
Point 2: ______________________________________________________
Point 3: ______________________________________________________
Introduction
Greeting (Say hello and introduce yourself):
_________________________________________________________________
Opener (get the audience’s attention):
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Topic Statement (tells the audience the main subject of the presentation).
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Preview (tell the audience the details about the topic you will discuss). This part is like at short map that shows the points about your topic that you will discuss.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
That's the lesson for today. See you soon!
Read part 1 - Give GREAT Presentations in English: Learn Body Language for English Presentations!
