How to Organize Your Main Points When You Present in English

This lesson has been updated from its original version posted in 2016.
Everything you need to know to organize the main points of your introduction.
Preparing a presentation in English is hard work. You want to be sure your speech is clear, easy to understand, and well-organized. And that’s what today’s lesson will help you do.
Today we’re focusing on the body of your presentation. This is the core or focus of your presentation. This is where you give all the important key points plus the details you need to support your talk.
In the lesson, you’ll learn the best way to organize the body of your presentation and key expressions to help you.
Make sure your presentation is smooth and easy to understand.
Lesson by Annemarie
How to Organize Information When You Present in English
Here is a very simple way to think about the organization of your presentation.
In this example, we’ll imagine a 15-20 minute presentation with 3 Key Points:
Key Point 1:
- Supporting detail 1
- Supporting detail 2
- Supporting detail 3
Key Point 2:
- Supporting detail 1
- Supporting detail 2
- Supporting detail 3
Key Point 3:
- Supporting detail 1
- Supporting detail 2
- Supporting detail 3
How many key points should you have?
When you are preparing your presentation, you want to be careful about how many key points you share. You want your audience to stay focused and interested. If you have too much information, your audience may become confused or bored.
As a general rule, use:
- 3 key points for a 10-15 minute presentation.
- 6 key points (or fewer) for a 30-minute presentation.
- 8 key points (or fewer) for a 45-minute presentation.
Useful Language to Organize Your English Presentation
Starting a Topic
- Let’s start with…
- Let’s start by looking at…
- To begin, I’d like to share with you…
- I’d like to start with…
Moving from Topic to Topic
- This leads me to my next point…
- Now, let’s take a look at…
- Now, I’d like to move on to…
- Now, I’d like to turn to…
- I’ll move on to my next point which is…
- Moving on to the next point, I’d like to…
- Now, let’s move on…
Referring to Previous Information
- As I mentioned earlier…
- As I mentioned in the introduction…
- As you may remember, I shared…
- As we touched on earlier…
Introducing Numbers, Graphs, or Charts
- I’d like to bring your attention to this chart/graph…
- To illustrate this point, please look at…
- To highlight this…
- As you can see here…
- This graph/chart illustrates…
**Note: When possible, always use specific numbers because they are more memorable. Look at these two example sentences:
- Many people joined the April Fluency Challenge.
- 107 people participated in the April Fluency Challenge.
Which sentence is easier for you to remember?
Giving Examples
- For instance…
- For example…
- I’d like to share an example of this with…
- A good/bad example of this is…
Rhetorical Questions*
*A rhetorical question is a question you ask but you don’t expect an answer. The purpose of the question is to make a point or get your audience to think about something. These are used often in English-speaking presentations.
- So what can we learn from this?
- So what does this information tell us?
- So what can we learn from this chart?
- How should we interpret these statistics?
- You might be wondering, what does this mean?
- How can we use this to our benefit?
- How can we solve this?
“Preparing a presentation in English is hard work. You want to be sure your speech is clear, easy to understand, and well-organized. And that’s what today’s lesson will help you do.”
Get the complete Presentations in English Series:
Part 1: How to Prepare for Your Presentation in English
Part 2: How to Start with a Great Introduction in Your Presentation
Part 3: How to Organize Your Presentation in English
Please share your experience with presentations in English below.
Do you have some useful functional language you could share to help organize a presentation in English? In the lesson, I provided many phrases that are common for native speakers. I’ve love to hear from you.
You can share in the comments section below. It’s the best place to get feedback and learn from the Confident English Community.
Have a great week! ~ Annemarie
P.S. Do you know anyone who needs help with presentations in English? Please share this page with them! And if it is helpful to you, remember to like or share it. Thank you!
Get the Confidence to Say What You Want in English
Follow my 3-step solution to speak English with clarity, fluency, and freedom so you can say what you want with confidence.
You'll also get my Confident English lessons delivered by email every Wednesday and occasional information about available courses. You can unsubscribe any time.
More Like This
#334: How to Group Words and Pause for Natural-Sounding English
Struggling to speak English naturally? Discover how to group words effectively using thought groups to improve your English fluency and sound more natural. Learn how to pause and improve pronunciation to make your English speech smooth and easy to understand.
#333: Better English Conversations: Increase Your Economic Vocabulary
Do you want better English conversations about the economy, finance, and global events? If you’ve ever felt unsure using economic vocabulary in English, this lesson will help you increase your economic vocabulary and speak with confidence in real conversations.
#332: Give Better Descriptions In English: Use -ish, -like, -esque
Learn how to use three powerful suffixes—-ish, -like, and -esque—to describe colors, times, styles, and qualities with precision and fluency.
#331: Handle Awkward Situations in English | Express Dislike Politely
Explore how to express dislike, disapproval, or lack of interest in a way that feels natural and honest.
#330: Do Less to Achieve More: Success Tips for English Confidence [FREE GUIDE]
A practical guide to English confidence: Learn why simplifying your approach leads to better progress. Stop overwhelming yourself with too many resources and start speaking with confidence.
Top 5 Confident English Lessons of 2024
Master spontaneous speaking, think faster, and become a more confident English speaker by catching up on the most popular lessons of 2024.
© Copyright 2014-2025 Speak Confident English | Privacy Policy | Terms & Disclaimer | Online Class Policies
I am love the way how you address the message and ur content from initially point to terminal is very well structured and easy to grasp.Thanks Mam
Your points are really helpful and up to the point.
Looking forward to learn more advance things through this channel.
Thank You.
Thanks for your help I prepare for ielts test can you give a hand how to prepare properly
i am abdala hassen, i’m english teacher as a second language. thanks alot for your help
the most problem that i face when teaching and presenting is that i feel difficulty joining sentences and speaking fast, so how can you help me.
best wishes
Hello Abdala,
Thank you so much for your comment!
When you say that it is difficult to join sentence and speak fast, do you mean that you want to speak more fluently? Is it difficult for you to find the words you want to say? Do you need a lot of time to think?
If you can provide more information, I would be happy to help! Best, Annemarie
Can you please help me learn how to know the meaning of English words when seeing it for the firsttime
I am Phally , Cambodia. Thanks very much for the ideas you had given. I learnt a lot from this and shared it to my colleagues at workplace
. Best regards