Glossary: Signpost Language

1. Introduction

Welcome to this small book on signpost language. Take a look through the different sections to revise and learn some useful phrases that you can use in your English presentations. When you feel comfortable with the phrases in this book, why not check out the quiz to test your knowledge?

2. Introducing the topic

At the start of your presentation you need to introduce your topic so your audience is aware of what you are going to be talking about. You can use the following phrases:

• The subject/topic of my presentation is ...
• I'm going to talk about ...
• My topic today is ...
• My presentation is concerned with ...
• Hello and welcome to my presentation on ...

3. Overview (outline of presentation)

After you have introduced the topic, it is often useful to give your audience an overview of what exactly they are going to expect. You could say things like:

• I'm going to divide this talk into three parts.
• There are a number of points I would like to make.
• I'd like to begin by ...
• Let's begin with ...
• First of all, I will ...
• ... and then I will go on to ...
• Then/Next ...
• Finally ...

4. Finishing a section

• That's all I have to say about ...
• We've looked at ...
• So much for ...

5. Starting a new section

You shouldn't just dive into a new section in your presentation. Use signpost language here to indicate that the topic has now changed (after you have used language to finish the previous section). You could say:

• Moving on now to ...
• Turning to ...
• Let's now turn to ...
• The next issue I would like to focus on is ...
• Now I would like to expand/elaborate on ...
• Now we'll move on to ...
• I'd like now to discuss ...
• Let's look now at ...

6. Elaborating on a point

Sometimes you might touch upon a very interesting point that seems to have created some interest amongst your audience, or that you think needs to be explained further so it is easier to understand. You could say the following:

• Where does that lead us? Well, ...
• Let's consider this in more detail ...
• What does this mean for ...?
• Translated into real terms ...
• So, why is this important?
• The significance of this is ...

7. Giving examples

You will probably find yourself giving examples on certain aspects of your presentation. Introduce these examples by saying things like:

• For example, ...
• A good example of this is ...
• As an illustration, ...
• To illustrate this point ...
• To give you an example, ...

8. Summarising and concluding

Using the right words and phrases to indicate that the end of your presentation is coming up is important. It allows your audience to prepare themselves for a summary of your topic. There are a few things you could say to do this:

• To sum up ...
• To summarise ...
• Let's summarise briefly what we've looked at ...
• If I can just sum up the main points ...
• Finally, let me remind you of some of the issues we've covered ...
• To conclude ...
• In conclusion ...
• That brings us to the end of the presentation. I'd like to summarise by saying ...
• That concludes my presentation. However, I'd like to quickly summarise the main points.
• And on that final note, that concludes my presentation.
• So, this concludes the focus of discussion today. To finish, I'd like to highlight ...
• In short ...
• So, to remind you of what I've covered in this talk ...
• (if you run out of time) Unfortunately, I seem to have run out of time, so I'll conclude very briefly by saying that ...
• I'd now like to recap on ...

9. Thanking the audience

Your audience have been paying attention to you, so it's nice to thank them briefly at the end. Say something like:

• Thank you very much for your attention.
• Thank you for listening.
• I hope you found this presentation interesting.
• I can see that our time is just about up so to finish I'd like to say thank you.
• I'd like to thank you for your time and attention today.

10. Invitation to discuss

At the end of the presentation, you may wish to (or even be required to) lead a small discuss based on the topics you covered. You could start this off by saying things like:

• I'm happy to answer any queries/questions.
  
• Does anybody have any questions or comments?
• Please feel free to ask questions.
• If you would like me to elaborate on any point, please ask.
• Would you like to ask any questions?
• Any questions?
• If anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to open up the discussion.
• I would now be interested to hear from you with your thoughts or questions.