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Presentation Feature: Articulating position/stance
What is it?A statement of your point of view which you try to convince/persuade the audience to believe based on evidence.
Why is it important?This is particularly important when you have to put forward a (new) argument and respond to a question that does not have a fixed answer. This feature may help to focus the talk as the speaker needs to provide a lot of evidence to substantiate his/her position/stance.
How is it done?The stance of a speaker is often preceded by expressions such as “I think/consider/argue”, “in my view” and “from my perspective” followed by the supporting evidence. In order to avoid making strong propositions or being overly categorical, oftentimes a speaker makes use of hedging devices such as “seems”, “appears” or modals in their statements. Sometimes a speaker may first present a question that may be controversial and then offer his/her view on the issue as a way of beginning his/her talk. It is also very common to find the use of evaluative markers when presenting the stance. Examples are “it is fortunate” and “I am surprised”.