If you don't mind & Presentation

Do you want to make your presentation more powerful?  Using Powerpoint?  Well, maybe, but what if the Powerpoint has no power? There are lots of ways to do it.  One of them is to start a sentence with ‘Wh’ words.







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Say, in your presentation, you want to talk about a BIG (city) plan to impress your bosses or teachers, you may say things like: I am going to talk about a big plan.   This plan is important to our company.




Well, the messages are clear, and I’m sure your bosses or teachers know what you mean. Yet, there is something missing. What is it? Power. But what about the following sentence? What I am going to talk about is important to our company. Why is it more powerful? Two points.




Point no. 1: Complex sentence

You are using a complex sentence, which probably means your thought is more complex. What’s wrong with using simple sentences? Nothing.  But it may give the feeling that what you talk about is simple.  

Well, we’re living in a postmodern world where feeling conquers, aren’t we?  (You don’t think so. Well, when was the last time you bought things 100% because of their functions?) So, what is my point? Two simple sentences make people feel you are simple-minded, which is exactly what you don’t want.  Right?



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Point no. 2: Big things come last.

If you go back to the complex sentence, you may notice that there are three parts:

Which three?

Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
What I am going to talk about	is	important to our company.

And about the three parts, there are three questions for you:

1. Which part is it that contains your main message?

2. Which part is it that tells us the reason why you do a presentation?

3. Which part do you want your bosses or teachers to pay attention to?



If you think Part 3 is the one, you are almost there. Why? In English, there is a rule that messages that are big, important, and significant come LAST. More examples? Think about a situation in which you want to make a polite request at a restaurant. Which one will you say?

a. If you don’t mind, could I have your drink?

b. Could I have your drink if you don’t mind?

          (It isn’t hygienic, is it?)

The only difference is the position of ‘ If you don’t mind’, right? But why is there such a difference? If you are the one who asks the question in sentence ‘b’, it means you want to be really polite. Why? The bigger part of your message, ‘ If you don’t mind’, is at the end (of the sentence). So to wrap up, the Feel Good tip is: Safety comes first, but Big things come last.




Pic Sources


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/4200110899/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76029035@N02/6829501333/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miamism/4018427330/sizes/o/in/photostream/