When delivering a presentation, it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand and follow along. This can be accomplished by using transitions to bridge the gap between ideas. Transitions can be a word or phrase that act as a signpost to the audience, signaling the relationship between points and ideas. Here we will take a look at how to use transitions more effectively in your presentation.
What are Speech Transitions?
Speech transitions are words or phrases that allow you to seamlessly transition from one point to another so that your speech flows smoothly. This makes it easier for the audience to follow along and see how one point relates to the next. Transitions can be one word, a phrase, or even a full sentence.
Examples of Transitions
Introduction
You can introduce your topic with one of the following transitions:
- The purpose of this presentation is to…
- Today we will examine the effects of…
- Our team will be discussing…
- I want to start by…
- Let’s begin by…
Moving from the Introduction to the First Point
This is when you will signal to the audience that you have introduced the topic and you are ready to discuss the first main point.
- Now that you are familiar with…let’s begin with…
- First, let’s begin by discussing…
- To get started, let’s look at…
- My first point covers…
Moving from One Point to Another
You can use these transitions to shift from one point to another during your presentation:
- In the same way…
- Likewise…
- Similarly…
- If I could now turn to…
- Now let’s consider…
Shifting to a Disagreeing Point
- The flip side of this issue is that…
- On the other hand…
- Yet, we cannot ignore…
- On the contrary…
- The opposing argument…
Introducing an Example
- Let me illustrate this by…
- Take the case of…
- This is demonstrated by…
- An example of this is…
Emphasizing Importance
- More importantly…
- This is essential because…
- Mainly…
Conclusion of the Presentation
- To sum up…
- In conclusion…
- In summary…
- Finally, I want to say that…
- Therefore…
Part of rehearsing your presentation involves practicing your transitions. Be sure to plan for these words and phrases, as they are the finishing touches that will pull your entire presentation together. Without them, you can confuse your audience. Effective transitions help to create a clearly organized presentation that feels like a continuous conversation.
