How to present an article

How to present an article when learning English

A regular task I dish out to my English students is presenting a topical current affairs article.

This is usually met with a range of approaches. From people preferring to read through the whole article together and provide short summaries after a given paragraph or pertinent section, or focusing on discussing and debating key issues from the text, to using the text as a spring board for diving into a closely related topic.

While all these ways of approaching and presenting an article are valid, there is also a way that could be regarded as a key skill whether for education, academia, or business. That’s what I’ll describe in what follows. This particular approach, I argue, is best suited to cases where articles are particularly long, and students desperately need to improve their presentation skills.

Thanks to this guide and with practice you’ll find yourself able to deliver a much more easy-to-follow, engaging, and thought-provoking informal presentation. First I’ll talk about the most versatile way of presenting, irrespective of the kind of article being presented. Then, I’ll describe ways to present individual types of articles and the unique challenges different types present. The type of articles I talk about are not necessarily the most common or important, but rather the ones I enjoy students and clients presenting to me. Lastly, I talk a bit about how to best argue and debate the ideas in an article.

Close reading and a structure for any occasion

I like to recommend my students and clients to present articles in a way that is a twist on how we presented articles in seminar sessions during my philosophy degree at Birkbeck College, University of London. In those good old days, we would be expected to come prepared to seminars having read a complex article, and ready to critique or defend ideas or an author’s view. Often an individual would be asked to give a short spoken presentation. The presentation needed to be accurate, concise, and informative. It needed to outline the main arguments, possible critiques, and possible defences. Professors would give very short shrift to students waffling, mumbling, or beating about the bush. You were meant to jump straight into the deep end, and cut to the meat of the matter. Once you got proficient at this sort of high-paced presenting style, it became quite exhilarating to read articles in preparation for seminars, and with practice one felt a real confidence in their presenting skills and grasp of an article.

The first thing about this type of presenting is that we should do a close reading of the article. This way we really get familiar with what’s being said, and reduce the chances of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Close reading forces us to look a text carefully, paying lcose attention to meaning, words, context, sense, or structure. This is also a reliable way of committing the main structure of the article and its arguments to memory. Academic articles can be long and demanding, so reading several times usually meant three times, the first was to get familiar with the article, the second to ensure understanding and begin making short bullet point notes, and the final reading would be to polish that understanding and the bullet points, ideally with a structure that would lead the presentation.

A similar formula can also be applied to topical articles when presenting to learn English, as my students do, but for the sake of practicality, I would say read once or twice, while doing all the things below:

Do a close reading of an article from top to bottom, at least once to understand the subject or topic; underline any words, phrases, or expressions that are new or unclear. Make bullet point notes of the main ideas, arguments, or concepts. In short, you are reading to get the main ideas and arguments, which you can then summarise back, and while going through this summary, you can also highlight and point out new words, expressions, and phrases. The teacher’s role when you will be presenting the artilce is to explain vocabulary based on how frequent and useful it is, and to provide contextual use examples. This often leads to helpful discussions about when to use a word or not, or a particular type of construction or phrase.

Dissecting an article - getting the specimen ready

The type of article you have will determine what kind of approach you take to presenting. It could be an article that is a about a topical breaking news event, a long read investigative story, or it could be an explainer article. These are usually my three types of favourite article format.

Let’s look at these one by one.

Topical news articles

A topical news article like this one How Trump’s tariff chaos could reshape Asia’s business from the BBC can pack in a lot of information. But nonetheless, you can break down that information into logical or cohesive steps as follows:

• Starts with the perspective of a chip maker, GlobalFoundaries based in Singapore, which makes tailor made computing chips for the likes of AMD, Broadcom, Qualcomm…

• The company is having to adapt to Trump’s tariff era, and they have been trying to appease the US ahead of ‘Liberation Day’, the end of a 90 day pause on tariffs

• But it’s unclear what happens next, levies on goods could range from 60% to 70% and tariffs from 10% to 20%

• While Trump has stated that semiconductors are exempt from tariffs, this has created uncertainty

• At the sametime the US wants to crackdown on illegal smuggling of chips to China from Malaysia and Singapore

• GlobalFoundaries operations are global and it’s looking to increase its investments by $16bn

• The company has pledged to move some of its operations to the US

• “Businesses need to rethink buffers, increasing their inventory and lead times to account for volatility” (perfect business English for discussion) to create new opportunities but this could effect competitiveness and market share

From this short bullet pointed summary of the first section of the article we get a good idea of what the article is about. These points allow me to describe the article in a detailed, yet brief and precise manner.

From such an article as a teacher leading a student while they present, I would highlight the following vocabulary, with examples of contextual sentences, and this is what my notes would look like that I prepare and share for a student:

• tailor’s shop / to tailor make something (to make or adjust something to a particular need)- GlobalFoundaries tailor makes its chips for clients.

• cufflinks - Cufflinks are used to bind the cuffs of men’s suit shirts.

• to accommodate somebody (metaphorical usage - to provide something desired or needed) - It’s not easy trying to accommodate every client’s unique demands.

• to appease (to provide something somebody needs or wants as a way to end a disagreement or dispute) - Many countries are trying to appease the Trump administration in a bid to lower tariffs.

• difference between ’a tariff’ and ‘a levy’ and ‘custom duties’: A levy is a form of tax imposed on individuals, businesses, or countries, for various types of goods, even property, or land, for the purposes of raising funds. Tariffs are imposed on imported goods, generally as part of a trade policy. All tariffs are customs duties, but not all custom duties are tariffs, thus tariffs are a subset of customs duties.

• to tighten controls (fixed phrase, collocation - to restrict controls) - America is seeking to tighten controls on microchip exports.

• to crack down (to take strict or severe action to deal with something) - The US is cracking down on illegal trading in microchips.

• to smuggle (move goods illegally in and out of a country) - Goods, like microchips, are frequently smuggled across borders.

• semiconductors (discuss this recently trending word)

• US soil (fixed phrase - used to emphasise an exact physical territory) - Many goods arriving on US soil will be subject to tariffs.

• tightly knit (bound together by strong relationships when referring to people) - The Trump administration consists of a tightly knit team.

• turmoil (a state of disturbance or chaos) - A lot of turmoil has been created due to America’s new trade policy and tariffs.

• explain business terms ‘buffers’, ‘lead times’, ‘inventory’

As we see here, from just looking at a portion of the article, a student is called upon to do close reading of the article to produce a concise bullet pointed summary, and to pick out vocabulary as above, for further elucidation from the teacher. Usually, I assist students in picking out such vocabulary, as it’s hard for them to judge whether a word, phrase, or expression is really that useful or high frequency. Very often students will not be diligent in picking out new vocabulary, and as the teacher I have to ask whether the student knows or is familiar with a word. Interestingly, working closely with a student and listening to them read, it's often possible to determine which words a student is not familiar with, or may misunderstand. In this way, a teacher can easily pinpoint and highlight new vocabulary for the students benefit.

Long read articles

Another type of article I often examine with students is a long read article like this one Why does Switzerland have more nuclear bunkers than any other country? from The Guardian. Again I will demonstrate with the opening part how you can summarise this article into easy bullet points:

• Apparently Switzerland has more nuclear bunkers (370,000) than any other country and could shelter its whole population of 9 million; Sweden and Finland are a close second

• Recently when the Ukraine war started citizens started to contact local authorities to locate their nearest bunker in case of an emergency. Many citizens called the Sonnenburg Museum, once the largest nuclear bunker, but now a museum, though still partially functioning as a shelter

• Due to recent Russian aggression in Europe, some countries like Finland have mandated that bunkers be built in new housing developments as a matter of law, something Switzerland has been doing since 1963

• Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the public in Switzerland had regarded their bunkers as unnecessary, but the war has led to a huge shift in attitudes, with the public looking at civil protection with changing attitudes

• Switzerland has been constructing bunkers for more than 60 years, with new buildings required to have a bunker onsite, or developers are required to earmark funds for a public one, to be maintained by the state. These bunkers can shelter people for days or weeks, with ventilation systems with a shelf life of 40 years

• The cost has usually been borne by developers and property owners, and is equivalent to annual Swiss healthcare premiums of about 1300 to 3000 Swiss francs

• In peacetime bunkers have been used as wine cellars, or for recreational activities, such as for saunas or paint balling, band practice, or community centres

• There are a second type of bunker called command posts used by personnel managing operations for civil protection, designed for longer stays, containing more facilities such as showers, kitchenettes, internet etc

• But these secondary bunkers have controversially been used to house migrants and refugees in recent years

• Swiss civil protection units at the cantonal level are expected to stockpile enough iodine at all times to counteract the effects of radiation exposure

From this article section, I would most likely pick out the following words, phrases, and expressions:

• bewilderment (deep state of shock and confusion)- There is a sense of bewilderment that Switzerland has more nuclear bunkers than any other country.

• to envy (deep feeling of jealousy towards another) - Many countries envy Switzerland’s civil protection policies.

• a query (a request usually in the form of a question) - Local authorities have been receiving queries from the public about nuclear bunkers.

• to be unrelenting (persistent and determined, not giving up) - Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine has been unrelenting.

• to mandate (an official order to do something) - Switzerland has mandated developers to build nuclear bunkers for new houses and residential complexes.

• to uphold (to confirm or support something that has been put into question) - Switzerland has upheld its policy of ensuring all residential areas have access to nuclear shelters.

• to be groundbreaking (to be innovative or pioneering) - Germany has passed groundbreaking legislation to finance new military spending for the fist time since the Second World War.

• to enshrine into law (to protect something by including it into something) - The right to protect all Swiss citizens in the case of a nuclear attack was enshrined into law over 60 years ago.

• to earmark (designate for a particular purpose) - Developers in Switzerland have to earmark funds for building nearby public shelters if they cannot build one onsite in a building.

• a shelf life (the length of time an item or product remains usable) - The shelf life of most fresh food is not long.

• extracurricular (something pursued in addition to the curriculum or main course of study) - Young people often do extracurricular activities after school.

• a canton (Swiss administrative division equivalent to a region or province)

Explainer articles

Finally here is an example of an explainer article from McKinsey and Company What is a semiconductor? And again I summarise the opening part in bullet points:

• a semiconductor is a material, like silicon, used in chip manufacturing that enables the controlled flow of electrical current for use in chips for diverse electrical devices

• semiconductors are essential to modern life, but we often fail to understand the term

• to understand it, we first need to understand the term ‘conductor’, which is a material that allows electricity to flow through it, so touching a metal object and experiencing a static shock is common, as metal is a very good conductor

• an insulator is the opposite of a conductor and impedes the flow of electric, so we usually find PVC (polyvinyl chloride) used to insulate electrical wires as plastic is a good insulator

• a semiconductor falls on a continuum of conductor and insulator

• manufacturers use silicon and similar materials to produce semiconductor devices which permit all kinds of devices to harness electricity to function

• semiconductors are considered to be powering, what has been termed, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, transforming manufacturing, production, and global business

• the reliance of various kinds of businesses on semiconductors is leading to some vulnerabilities, this was exposed in the pandemic semiconductor-shortage crisis which the article explores, along with how businesses can mitigate the risks of over reliance on semiconductors, and why semiconductors may dominate global business over the next decade

From this article I would select the highlight the following vocabulary to discuss:

• semiconductor (a material used in technology mainly chips due to its properties as both a conductor and insulator of electricity)

• to be murky (obscure or morally questionable)- Most people’s understanding of semiconductors is murky.

• a doorknob - Usually you need to turn a doorknob to open a door.

• a conductor - A conductor is used in electric devices to conduct electricity.

• an insulator - An insulator is used in electric devices to prevent the conduction of electricity.

• to impede (delay or prevent something by obstructing it) - Some materials impede the flow of electricity.

• a wafer (a thin piece of something, usually a thin biscuit) - A wafer is a very thin piece of material, for example you can use a wafer when eating ice cream, or wafers of material in electrical devices.

• The Fourth Industrial Revolution (refers to the most recent phase of digitising the manufacturing industry driven by data and connectivity)

• to be vulnerable (able to be easily hurt, attacked, or damaged; willing to show one’s emotional state) - The semiconductor industry is vulnerable to global economic volatility. / He was being vulnerable when he shared his life story.

• a vulnerability - The vulnerability of the semiconductor industry is a concern for businesses and investors.

• to mitigate (to lessen the harmfulness of something) - Businesses are doing their best to mitigate the risks in the semiconductor business.

The charity principle

When discussing any article I like to remind students to observe the charity principle. This is the principle of considering and weighing ideas and arguments, even ones we strongly disagree with, as rationally as possible, even if this means adding missing statements, information, or illuminating ambiguities. By doing this, we serve to evaluate an article and its contents with as little bias and prejudice as possible.

In doing this, we are best able to engage with ideas and argument different to our own, broaden the scope of our own limited thinking and views, and act inclusively in debates, which otherwise may run the risk of excluding pertient and valuble information and knowledge. However, the charity principle and this latter consideration shouldn’t be interpreted as a call to avoid disagreement and conflict of viewpoints at all cost. That often leads to disingenuous debate, interpersonal engagement, and a form of inclusivity that creates a false sense of security. Sincere open-minded and inclusive debate is when two parties can vociferously and passionately disagree, yet are willing to show charity to another person’s opinions and views.

This is usually a far more constructive, healthy, and ingenuous form of engagement. It can help to foster deep connection, acceptance, and trust. This can seem counterintuitive. However, when we frequently or consistently seek to avoid disagreement or argument at all costs, choose to remain amicable and accommodating, it can mask and repress genuine sentiment and feelings. This can lead to resentment in the longterm, or even a sudden dissolution of a working relationship, since when an unavoidable conflict of opinion does arise, there is no mechanism in the existing relationship to help absorb the gravity of the disagreement. This is why we observe how in deep relationships, be they working, friendships, personal or intimate, individuals can engage in passionate, yet respectful, disagreement or argument where people honestly express their feelings, opinions, and views, with no loss to the relationship, and in fact a greater forging of said relationship.

In short, thanks to the charity principle, we not only get the most out of the ideas and arguments we explore and debate in articles and diverse domains, but it also serves to strengthen interpersonal bonds.

Being the devil’s advocate

And on a final point, when discussing ideas and arguments in articles it’s always good practice to come armed with the devil’s advocate.

It’s quite easy to become beholden to our own perspective on things. We can become emotionally invested to the point of blindness. Of course, often we need a dose of emotional investment to sustain our commitment to a set of beliefs that serve to do more good than harm. It’s wise, for instance, to have some emotional investment in morality. Having none may result in a sense of relative nihilism, and a sense that there is no right and wrong to any matter. This can quickly lead to a depressed, despondent, and fractured approach to life, the world, and other people.

Playing the devil’s advocate is a great exercise in mental and belief-systems gymnastics, as it forces us to rewire emotions to behaviours and beliefs that might resound dissonantly for us. This dissonnating effect can be unnerving. Thus, by regularly going out to play with the devil, it can put us at ease with ways of thinking that feel foreign to our own. This can make us much more calm, considerate, and assured in fiery debate, as we can easily imagine holding and expressing a view, we otherwise might vociferously protest against, or feel deeply affronted by. Sometimes, by playing the devil’s advocate, we can also land upon ideas and opinions that we might not otherwise have done so.

Finally…

With all these things in mind, you should now be better equiped to present certain types of article, to do basic close reading, to do a bullet point summary, have gained a better awareness of the type of vocabulary that can be gleaned from articles, and how thanks to the charity principle and the devil's adovocate you are set to have the most constructive and informative fun when debating and discussing the ideas in an article.