ECEN 1515
Professional and Technical Oral
Communication for Engineers
Session Four
Introduction, Conclusion,
Pronunciation and Outline
Objectives


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Structure of Introduction and Conclusion
Pronunciation
Outline of Presentation
Introduction
Introduction
 Greet the audience
 Introduce yourself
 Give the title of your presentation
 Provide background information of your topic




E.g. Statistics / Interesting findings
State the focus of your presentation
Illustrate the structure of your presentation
Inform the audience when they may ask
questions (optional)
Conclusion
Conclusion
 Summarise the main findings
 Make recommendations (if any)
 Give a complimentary closing



“that’s the end of my presentation”
Thank the audience
Invite questions
Presentation Practice

Prepare and give the introduction and
conclusion to presentations a and b then to
your own pair presentation that you did in
Session two.
Learning IPA

Useful Online Resources

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
(American Pronunciation)

http://caes.hku.hk/ipast/
Challenge yourself

Can you pronounce the following words
correctly by reading the phonetic
transcription?

considerate, imitate, receipt, pronunciation,
serious, informative, quintessential,
gynecologist, osteoporosis, debut, finale,
schizophrenia
Challenge yourself
Source: http://dictionary.cambridge.org
Rule-Governed Pronunciation
[Past-Tense (-ed)]
1. State, rent, disappoint, suspect, duplicate
[verbs end with / / sound]
2. Raid, Trade, Fade [verbs end with / / sound]
 How would you pronounce their past tense (-ed)
form?
Rule-Governed Pronunciation
[Past-Tense (-ed)]

How do you say the past tense form of
the following verbs?
 Celebrate,
play, love, investigate,
found, rejuvenate, rain
Pausing

In written English, we use punctuation to show where
the pauses in the sentences should be. When we speak
English, our listeners don’t see the punctuation, but we
don’t generally run all the words together in a stream
of equally-emphasized words either. We group words by
their meaning, and pause between them. This allows us
to speak in phrases or sense groups, and to pause just
after important information that we emphasize.
Say IT!
Try this monologue and pay attention to the tone (rising /
falling) before pausing:

Finally, // each time you prepare the solution,  //
you should take into account  / the temperature of
the liquids.  // Don’t mix these two liquids together
/
unless
they
have
the
same
temperature:
 // room temperature. // After they reach the
same temperature,  // then you can mix them
together / and get the starting temperature.
Outline of your Presentation


Drafting an outline is important as this can
help structure your presentation in a logical
manner
Look at the following three examples of
outline and identify the differences
Outline 1
Title: Bridges
1st part: design of the bridge
2nd part: construction of the bridge
3rd part: materials used
4th part: efficient use of resources
5th part: case study
objective: meet our society and
sustainability
Outline 2
Introduction
 The presentation will begin with a description of nowadays
engineering requirement of bridges.
Main body
 Different designs of modern bridges are discussed. Example will
be analyzed. (e.g. footbridge, flyovers)
 Common construction process will be introduced. (e.g. concrete,
steel, rock)
 The properties of some construction materials will be
introduced.
 Efficient use of resources: How to save money
 amount of material used
 labour force distribution
 saving water and electricity in a construction site
Conclusion
Outline 3
Introduction
 The presentation will begin with a
description of nowadays engineering
requirement of bridges.
Outline 3
Main body
1. Different designs of modern bridges are discussed.
Footbridges and flyovers will be analyzed.
2.



3.

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Ting Kau Bridge is introduced as example.
location
length
number of lanes
The construction process will be introduced.
foundation
column
section of bridge deck
slant steel cable
connecting the sections
finishing of the road surface
Outline 3
Main body
4. The properties of some construction materials will be
introduced.

concrete (strength of different grading, hardening
date, ingredient, durability)

steel (pre-stressing, reinforcing the concrete)
5.



Efficient use of resources: How to save money
amount of material used

calculate the position of force supporting

efficient use of protective layer

decide density of bars used
labour force distribution

planning of work schedule

estimate work load
saving water and electricity in a construction site
Outline 3
Conclusion
 summarize the engineering
knowledge discussed
 forecast the design of bridges in
future
Homework

Submit a detailed and specific outline of
your group presentation to me by email at
least 24 hours before next lesson.