[Introduction]

In daily work, business English is used in more and more scenarios. Whether it is grassroots employees or managers, whether it is directly facing foreign customers or communicating with superiors and subordinates, there are certain requirements for our business English writing and oral reporting abilities.

[Purpose]

To enable participants to explore, understand and use the mechanics of project report preparation and writing together with the necessary presentation skills to present or defend their report.

[Skill Acquisition]

• The general approach to report structure
• How to include risk within reports
• Be able to make better decisions about word choice to improve report effectiveness
• Use the correct tone and style
• How to promote cohesion in reports
• More effectively write & speak about figures, data and graph analysis
• Structure a professional presentation
• Better promote and maintain audience engagement
• Manage the issue of questions and how one can use them to your benefit
• Improvement in confidence

Session 1

In order to address the issue of written and oral presentations within a multi-cultural framework, we must necessarily, first have a clearer idea of what culture is and how it affects our perceptions and influences our interactions with others; hence Section 1.

Duration: 60 minutes

Part 1: Communicating Across Cultures

Areas of Focus:

Understanding culture & its impact Overcoming cultural difficulties

Part 2: Reports, thinking & culture

Areas of Focus: An exploration of different communication styles

Cultural lenses & its challenges; key differences between Western & Chinese thinking/logic

Session 2

There is often a significant difference between written and oral presentation in English but both are premised upon a number of common factors and thus whilst section 2's focus is on the written word, the majority of content is equally applicable to oral presentation. Logic is less of a problem than grammar, tone, and cohesion misalignments.

Duration: 150 minutes

Part 3: Structure

Areas of Focus: Internal & external structures; testing skeletal frameworks

Part 4: The importance of word choice

Areas of Focus: Subtleties of meaning; inclusive language; paragraph writing/speaking; parallelism; verbosity avoidance; 6 key differences between English & Chinese structures

Part 5: Writing about detail

Areas of Focus: Differentiating fact & opinion; comparative analysis; cause & effect

Part 6: Tone & style

Areas of Focus: Direct & brief without bluntness; achieving cohesion; persuasive writing; register differentiation; knowing your reader & small group practice exercises

Part 7: Graphs

Areas of Focus: The language of different types of graphs; describing trends in written and oral presentation & small group practice exercises

Session 3

The focus in this last part is more on oral presentation but again some aspects are equally applicable to written English. It is probably the toughest aspect of using a second language as much depends on our logic, ability to self-monitor and critically, on our inner linguistic confidence.

Duration: 150 minutes

Part 8: Audience Engagement

Areas of Focus: Methodology; including positive use of body language; word choice; register; ; storytelling; top tips

Part 9: Presentation structure

Areas of Focus: Presentation structure & skills; vocal production; cohesion & logic; comparison & contrast

Part 10: Assertive & persuasive communication

Areas of Focus: Assertive & persuasive communication; levels of agreement; the balanced way to structure a speech; thinking on your feet

Part 11: The Question Session

Areas of Focus: Tactics and skills for managing the Q&A section; debate vocabulary

Event Details：

• Event Format: In-person, Conference Room, The Exchange Tower 2, No.189 Nanjing Rd, Heping District, Tianjin
• Time: August 18, Friday, 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
• Language: English
• Contact: Christine Chen, Christine.Chen@amchamchina.org/ 022-23185073