How to handle difficult Q&A momentswith confidence and professionalism
During Q&A after a presentation, do you worry about
being able to answer all of the audience’s questions about
your research with confidence and professionalism? If so,
you’re definitely not alone. Even experienced presenters
can feel nervous about handling the Q&A portion well—it’s
not always possible to anticipate the questions that will beasked or the direction that Q&A will take.
We’ve given some practical tips before on how best toprepare for conference presentations and deliver themeffectively. In this article, we’ll focus on how you can use
some simple standard phrases to handle unexpected
questions or difficult moments smoothly and with authority.
For the following 6 potentially tricky scenarios during Q&A, you can choose which phrase or phrases best match yourlevel of language proficiency and your style of speaking.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

When you don’t hear the question well
When you don’t understand the question fully (or you aren’t asked a clear question)
When you need a little time for thinking before you start your answerWhen you want to emphasize that you are giving a tentative answer only
When you don’t know the answer and don’t want to give a tentative one
When you disagree with the asker

Experienced speakers may recognize that there is some overlap between the phrases used in certain scenarios above(such as 1 and 2). However, we’ve seen many instances when not using phrases specific enough to each scenariocauses confusion and misunderstandings between presenters and audience members, so we suggest using more
specific, non-overlapping phrases to keep communication clear and simple.

Download common phrases
to handle difficult Q&A moments

1
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1) When you don’t hear the question wellSometimes a question is just not loud enough for you to hear clearly—maybe the audience member doesn’t have amicrophone or doesn’t speak loudly enough at all times even with a microphone.
It’s important to say when you don’t hear all of the question asked (see scenario 2 if you heard the question but don’t
understand what is being asked).
At international conferences and in research meetings, we have often seen this miscommunication happen: thepresenter doesn’t hear the question well enough, so they respond with “Pardon?” or “Sorry, could you say that again?”and the asker wrongly assumes the presenter didn’t understand the original question and then spends unnecessary
time recasting the (sometimes lengthy) question.
A quick way to ensure the audience knows that you couldn’t hear a question (rather than didn’t understand it) is to say
so explicitly.

When you didn’t hear all or most of the question and need to hear it all again:••

Sorry, I couldn’t hear that. Could you say it louder please?
Sorry, I couldn’t hear that very well. Could you repeat it a bit louder?

When you didn’t hear part of the question well and want only that part to be repeated:•••

Sorry, I didn’t hear the last part of your question. Could you repeat that part again please?
Sorry, I couldn’t hear all of your question. Did you say/ask “xxxxx”?
Pardon? I couldn’t quite hear the last part of the sentence. Are you asking whether/if…?

As you say this, you can also signal non-verbally that you didn’t hear, by tilting your head and shoulder forward slightly
toward the asker.
Also, note that the common phrase “I didn’t catch that” can be used to mean both “I didn’t hear that” and “I didn’t
understand that.” So, it’s best to use the verb “hear” to make the problem immediately clear to the asker.

2) When you don’t understand the question fully(or you aren’t asked a clear question)
You’ve probably seen people not understand questions during Q&A at conferences or research meetings and may wellhave experienced this yourself as either a presenter or the person asking the question.
Maybe the question is too difficult to understand linguistically (it exceeds your current level of English proficiency) or
because the asker’s question itself is not clear (this is especially common when it is in the form of a comment or an
opinion, with the question implied or indirectly asked).
When you don’t understand, the best way to handle this is simply to state that you don’t understand, so that the asker
can recast, or reframe, the question.

•••••

Sorry, I didn’t understand the question. Could you repeat it please?
Sorry, I didn’t quite catch your question/meaning there.
Sorry, I couldn’t understand the last part (of your question).
Sorry, I’m not sure (that) I understand. Did you say/ask/mean “xxxxx”?
Sorry, I’m not quite sure of your question. Are you asking if/whether…?

2
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3) When you need a little time for thinking before giving your answer
When you are asked a question that you haven’t prepared an answer for, you might need a little time to think throughthe idea and construct your response. It’s important to use a “thinking phrase” to signal to the audience that you
understood the question and are actively constructing an answer, so they will wait a short time patiently before you
respond to the idea. This will also stop the asker from repeating or restating the question unnecessarily, which can bedistracting.
Try using one of the following common phrases (or a combination of them) to signal that you are preparing to answer—to buy a few more seconds of thinking time—before starting your answer.

•••••
•
•

Good question… Well… (Start your answer)
Good point… Well…
That’s a good/interesting question… OK…
Ah, yes… OK… that’s a good point…
Ah, that’s interesting… Let me think (a second)…
Let me consider the best way to answer that.
That point deserves some thought. Let’s see…

4) When you want to emphasize that you are giving a tentative answer only
When you don’t know the exact answer to a question, or when the answer has too many parts to answer in the time you
have, you might still want to give a tentative or incomplete answer.
It’s important to signal that you are “thinking on your feet” and that your answer will represent your initial thoughts on thematter and may not be what you would answer given more thinking time (and maybe more experimental or theoreticalwork).
You can signal this clearly by using these standard phrases in English.

••••
•
•
•

My first thoughts are that…
Off the top of my head (maybe)…
I’m not sure what the research says on this, but maybe…
Don’t quote me on this, because I might change my mind, but I think…
That’s a bit beyond the scope of this talk, but my understanding is that basically…
Let me sketch some thoughts (and maybe we can follow up after)…
I’m summarizing here, so some details may differ, but…

These common phrases often follow a thinking phrase from point 3 above.

••That’s interesting… Well… (Start your answer) My first thoughts are that maybe…
Ah, good question… I haven’t (really) thought about that before/in detail before… (Start your answer) Off the top of
my head, it’s possible that…

5) When you don’t know the answer and don’t want to give a tentative one
Sometimes when you don’t know the answer, you’ll also not want to venture a tentative answer, perhaps because thequestion is beyond your expertise or because you know of recent research on the topic but not what the results are.
Here are some phrases to indicate that although you are not going to answer the question, you are not disagreeing withthe asker.

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•
•
•
•

I don’t have the data here/at hand (right now), and I need to check it before answering.

••That would be interesting to find out, but I don’t know the answer. Thank you for raising the question.

I’m not sure what the answer to that is, and I don’t want to mislead anyone, so I don’t think I can answer that right now.
I know that AA and BB are researching that, but I don’t know what they’ve found.
That’s beyond the scope of this research, and I’m not sure how to give a reasonable answer. But that’s aninteresting point.
That might be more in the field of X, and I’m not that familiar with it enough to answer.

6) When you disagree with the asker
Because your audience will likely include people with similar research interests, sometimes audience members will beexperts in your topic but have a different perspective or follow a different line of research. They may disagree with yourwork or a part of it. Some questions may actually be intended more as comments to tell you that your perspective orresearch is wrong than to elicit useful knowledge from you.
If you find yourself in this situation, tactfully responding to these questions can prevent Q&A from devolving into anargument over technical issues that most audience members will neither understand nor care about.
Here are a few phrases you can use to disagree with the asker and defuse any tension.

••It seems we think differently. Maybe we can talk more later.

••

I understand your point, but I believe my approach offers a new way forward as I explained…

•••

Yes, I’m aware of that research direction, but I’m interested in achieving different aims, which is why I’ve taken theapproach I talked about here.
I think this comes down to a difference in theoretical basis, which we’re not going to be able to resolve during thisQ&A. Maybe we can talk more later about this.
I’m not sure that’s correct, but I’ll look it up and we can discuss it later.
I’d love to debate that in the literature with you.
Thanks for the comment/question. It’s something for me to think about.

Summary/Conclusion
One of the main benefits of attending a presentation in person is being able to ask the presenters questions, rather
than just watching a video of the presentation or reading the proceedings, so the Q&A session can give you a chance
to demonstrate the depth of your research as well as find out areas in your research that might benefit from moreemphasis, clarity, or depth.
Being able to respond effectively to questions that are not perfectly audible, comprehensible, clear, or simple to answer
is likely to improve your confidence in speaking and to make your presentations more memorable.
Colleagues and mentors are often the best resource for improving your own speaking, but our team of expert presenters
is happy help you or your whole group be better prepared and more confident in giving conference presentations or
research meeting updates. We can help through our one-on-one presentation coaching sessions or group presentation
workshops and courses, and of course by editing or translating your prepared Q&A session answers for you.
Happy presenting! Any questions? Just send us an email to ask.

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