used in Academic Presentations. When you are standing in front of a crowd

of people who are waiting for your presentation to begin, how do you as the speaker begin

your presentation? “Let’s get the ball rolling” is one

common expression used at the beginning of a presentation.

But there is no ball in the room! What ball are we talking about?

The intended meaning of the expression is begin the discussion or lecture. *Oftentimes,

this expression signals the lecture will begin with an activity or warm-up discussion. *This

activity will then lead to the main idea or purpose of the lecture. Let’s consider the

following example. In a lecture in biology class on microorganisms

in food production, the instructor might say the following:

Let’s get the ball rolling. Take a minute and write down your five favorite things to

eat or drink, then share your list with your neighbor. As we know, microorganisms are all

around us, everywhere we go. Did you know that we put microorganisms into our foods,

intentionally, to make things tastier and healthier?

As you heard, “let’s get the ball rolling was the first sentence spoken. Starting with

this phrase alerted the audience to this warm-up activity, which previews the main part of

the lecture. Other variations of this expression that you

may hear are: To get the ball rolling To get the ball rolling,

what is your personal definition of… In order to get the ball rolling… In order

to get the ball rolling, ask the person sitting next to you what languages they speak. Let’s

get rolling… We’ve got a lot to cover today, so let’s get rolling.

All of these variations have the same meaning more or less.

Now, the next time you hear “let’s get the ball rolling”, you will know what it

means, and not think it’s time for a football game!

Thanks for watching, and have fun trying out these idioms!