Slides that carry one idea

Ask for “a presentation about the Q3 results” and you will get eight slides with four bullets each, all grammatically parallel, none of which say anything. It is the most reliably disappointing output in this module.

The problem is not the tool. It is that “about X” describes a topic, and a presentation is not a topic. It is an argument delivered in order.

Get the argument first

Before any slides:

I need to present [subject] to [audience] in [minutes] minutes.

What I want them to do afterwards: [decision].

Do not make slides yet. Give me the argument as a numbered sequence of claims, where each one is needed for the next. Mark any claim I have not given you evidence for.

That last instruction is doing the same job as L1’s sceptical-reader line, and it is where decks usually fail — a step in the reasoning that everyone assumes and nobody has shown.

Naming what you want the audience to do also disciplines everything downstream. A deck aimed at a decision is a different deck from one aimed at “sharing an update”, and most bad decks are the second pretending to be the first.

One assertion per slide

Now convert. The rule that does the most work:

One slide per claim. The title must be the claim, as a full sentence — not a topic label. The body carries the single piece of evidence for it. If a slide needs two pieces of evidence, split it.

Compare:

Regional performance — a folder name.

North is the only region below plan, and it is 12% below — a claim, arguable and checkable.

Assertion headlines have a useful side effect: a reader who only skims your titles still receives the whole argument. Given how decks actually get consumed — forwarded, half-read, skimmed on a phone — that is where most of the value lands.

What to do with the bullets

Ask for prose, then cut. Bullets are the default because they look like slide content, but a bullet is a sentence with its verb removed and its logic hidden.

If a slide genuinely holds a list, make it a list of things — regions, options, dates. If the items are ideas, they are separate slides or they are speaker notes.

Speaker notes are the right home for most of what ends up on slides. Ask for them explicitly: give me the two sentences I should say over this slide.

The numbers rule still applies

Every figure on a slide is subject to L5. Slides are the format where an unchecked number does most damage, because it is projected, screenshotted and quoted long after the deck’s context is gone. Recompute anything you put in 30-point type.

Try it now (7 minutes)

Take a deck you need to build. Ask for the argument as numbered claims, with unevidenced steps marked.

Then write assertion headlines for the first three. If you cannot state a slide as a claim, you have found a slide that does not need to exist.

Check your understanding

1. Why does asking for 'a deck about X' produce weak slides? Presentation software formats badly 'About X' is a topic, and a presentation is an argument in sequence Assistants cannot generate images

2. An assertion headline is: A title stating the slide's claim as a full sentence A short topic label like 'Regional performance' The first bullet, promoted to the title

3. A slide needing two separate pieces of evidence should: Use a two-column layout Be split into two slides Move one piece into a footnote

Recap

Get the argument as numbered claims before any slide exists, mark the steps you have not evidenced, and give every slide an assertion headline with a single piece of evidence under it. Push the rest into speaker notes, and recompute every number you put on screen.