During an oral presentation, your transition statements serve as “glue” to hold your presentation together and demonstrate your logic. When preparing a presentation, pay attention to crafting transitions between sections of content.
You can use easy transitions such as first, second, third. But it’s more powerful to use what Communication guru Mary Munter calls a “look back-look forward” transition: tell the audience briefly what you just covered and preview what you will cover in the next section. For example: “Now that we’ve discussed the overall market, let’s consider what market share we can expect and why.” This transition technique is also useful if someone interrupts with a question – you can use it to get back to the content and flow of your presentation.
If you can’t generate a graceful transition from A to B, review your outline or pyramid structure; your topics may be in the wrong order.
© Beth O’Sullivan 2019