Questions and discussions
Whether questions and discussion are raised during your presentation or after it, you need to manage the audience strategically:
- Do inform your audience during the introduction to your talk about when they are 'free to ask questions'. This can be either 'anytime during the presentation', or 'at the end'.
- Ask the audience to keep their questions brief and confined to one or two points.
- If you receive a question you are confident to answer, thank the questioner, repeat or summarise the question in case others have not heard it clearly, and respond briefly.
- If no one asks a question at the end (and you are expecting them to), have a few prepared to be able to ask your audience to respond to.
If you have to manage a 'discussion' as part of your presentation, the section below may help you structure that.
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Managing a discussion
FUNCTION |
EXAMPLES OF DISCUSSION LANGUAGE |
---|---|
Raise a starting point |
An important perspective we should consider first is … |
Give your opinion |
As far as I’m concerned … |
Agree |
I take your point. |
Disagree |
I can’t say I share your view. |
Manage interruptions |
Thank you. I was just coming to that. |
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Dealing with difficult questions
Try not to feel nervous by questions you think you will not be able to answer easily. Here are some suggestions for handling difficult or complex questions form your audience:
FUNCTION |
EXAMPLES OF LANGUAGE |
---|---|
Thank the questioner |
Thank you for the question. |
Ensure everyone has heard the question |
X has asked … |
Seek clarification from the questioner |
Could you say a little more about that? |
Choose a strategy to give yourself time |
That’s something I’d like to give some thought to. |
Seek information from the audience and |
That’s an interesting point. Would anyone like to |
Deal with several people trying to speak at one time; |
Thank you—this gentleman/lady first, and then |
Deal with a speaker whose comment is taking too long |
I’m sorry, we’re running out of time and I’ll have to interrupt there. Thank you for your interesting comments. |
End the discussion |
Thank you—I think we can say our discussion |
Draw attention to your handout |
Before you leave, please ensure you have a copy of our information sheet/flyer. Thank you again for coming. |
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Adapted from Forman, R. n.d., Seminar presentation, UTS: ELSSA Centre, Sydney.