Lesson 12: Notes and Slides

Notes and slides are tools, and like any tools they help when used well and hurt when used badly. A speaker who reads every word from a script sounds flat and disconnected. A speaker with no notes at all risks forgetting the order of their points. The same is true of slides: a few clear slides can make a talk vivid, while slides packed with text turn the speaker into a narrator for the screen. This lesson is about getting both right.

Notes: Prompts, Not a Script

The best notes for a talk are cue cards: small cards, one per main point, each carrying a few key words, a number, or a short phrase — never full sentences. A card might read: "Point 2 — garden teaches food — example: tomatoes in science class." That is enough to remind you what to say, and short enough that one glance brings you back on track. Number your cards, and use large, clear handwriting so you can read them at a glance. Practise with the cards exactly as you will use them on the day, holding them in one hand and glancing down only between points. If you drop a card, the numbers save you. If you write a full script instead, you will end up reading it — and a talk that is read aloud is almost always a talk the audience stops listening to.

Slides: Less Is More

A slide should do one of three things: show something words cannot (a photo, a chart, a map), give the audience a number or a name to remember, or mark the structure of your talk ("Reason 2: The garden teaches us about food"). What a slide should never do is carry your whole talk in text. The rule of thumb is simple: if the audience can get everything from reading your slides, they do not need you. Keep each slide to a few words or a single image, use large text that the back row can read, and choose a plain, readable design. Put the slide up, say what it shows, and then talk to the audience — not to the screen. And always have a plan for the slides failing: know your talk well enough to deliver it without them.

Working with Visual Aids

Whatever visual aid you use — slides, a poster, an object, or a demonstration — introduce it before you show it, and take it away or move past it when you are done with it. An object left on display while you talk about something else pulls eyes away from you. If you are showing a physical object, hold it up, let everyone see it, and then put it down. If you are using a board, write key words as you go rather than filling it before you start. Visual aids work when they are simple, visible to everyone, and clearly connected to the point you are making at that moment. When in doubt, use fewer of them: a talk with one strong image is better than a talk with twenty forgettable slides.