Lesson 1 of 7 · 7 min read

Spoken deck or read document

Decide whether your audience will hear a talk or read alone, then put the script in the notes and the backup in an appendix.

Two different objects

Before you open a slide tool, decide how your audience will use what you make. A deck that backs a live talk and a document someone reads alone are different objects. They need different amounts of text, a different structure and a different place for detail.

A Hacker News commenter, senko, put the distinction plainly in a thread about Edward Tufte. A slide in a live talk may hold one sentence, one image or one chart, and mean little without the speaker. A document read alone carries the main point up front and the detail beneath it. Senko added that people often try to make one deck do both jobs, and the result is usually poor.

This lesson is about that choice. You decide the format for your own deck, put the script where it belongs, and move the backup analysis out of the main slides. Lesson 2 then writes the one sentence the whole deck must prove.

When the reader decides alone, write a document

Amazon made this choice in 2004, starting with its senior leadership meetings. Jeff Bezos emailed the senior team that slide presentations would stop. Each meeting would open with a narrative memo instead.

Bezos argued that narrative writing forces the author to think about what matters more than what. In his 2017 shareholder letter, he wrote that Amazon uses six-page memos instead of slides, read in silence at the start of each meeting. The same letter admits that memo quality varies widely. A memo does not make a weak argument strong.

Edward Tufte, a statistician and writer on information design, made a related argument about technical decisions. He argued that a printed report beats slides, because it carries more detail and keeps the reasoning in one place. He estimated that four folded 11-by-17-inch pages could hold the content of a 33-slide deck.

Both criticisms target the deck used as a decision document. Neither says a speaker should never show slides. They say that a decision resting on detail needs a document the reader can study.

Treat this split as expert consensus. It comes from one company’s practice, one critic’s argument and practitioners who agree with both. No controlled test has compared the two formats for business decisions.

Put the script in the speaker notes

A spoken deck has a different risk. The speaker’s script ends up on the slide, and the audience reads while the speaker says the same words aloud.

Mayer, Heiser and Lonn tested this in a set of experiments published in 2001. Students learned from a narrated lesson, with or without on-screen text that repeated the narration. The students who saw the repeated text remembered less, and did worse when asked to apply what they had learned.

This is experimental evidence, with limits. The participants were students, not managers in a meeting. The finding covers text that repeats the narration word for word. It does not say slides should carry no words, and Lesson 4 covers the short key words that help.

So write your full script in the speaker notes. The slide keeps the claim and its evidence. The notes keep what you will say. If someone who missed the talk needs the content, send them the document, not the slides.

The notes also give you something to rehearse from. Lesson 7 uses them for a timed run-through. Write them as you would speak, in short sentences, not as a second document.

Move the backup analysis to an appendix

Nancy Duarte, writing in Harvard Business Review in 2012, gave the same advice for senior audiences. Keep a short set of summary slides up front. Hold the detailed material in an appendix, and bring it out when someone asks a question.

The appendix keeps the main deck short without hiding anything. Put the weekly data, the method behind an estimate and the full cost breakdown there. Each appendix slide still gets a claim title and a source, so it holds up if someone opens it.

This rule is also expert consensus. Executive coaches and consultants give the same advice, and no controlled test supports or contradicts it.

What each piece carries

A pre-read document carries the full argument in sentences. It states the recommendation first, then the evidence, the risks and the next step. A reader should be able to decide from it without you in the room.

A spoken deck carries the claims and the evidence the audience must see. It has fewer words, because you supply the rest aloud. Each slide holds one claim, which Lesson 3 turns into an action title.

When you make both, they share one argument and the same numbers. If a figure changes in one, change it in the other on the same day. A careful reader will notice a mismatch and question both.

Tell your assistant which object you are making, and for whom. A request that names the format, the reader and the setting tells the assistant how much text to write. The first prompt below does this.

Choose by how the audience will use it

Three questions settle most cases. Will the audience read the material before, during or after the meeting? Will someone who missed the meeting need it later? Does the decision rest on detail the audience must check for themselves?

If people decide in the room from what you say, build a spoken deck. If they decide alone from what they read, write a document. If both happen, make both: a short document for the reader and a spoken deck for the room. They share one argument but not one file.

Worked example · Larkfield Supply

Morgan chooses the format

Morgan, the warehouse manager at Larkfield Supply, wants the leadership team to approve a second shift for the November to January peak. The leadership meeting gives Morgan a 15-minute slot. Priya, the CFO, reads materials the day before.

Morgan asks an assistant for a first draft and gets 14 slides of dense bullets. The draft tries to be a talk and a read at the same time.
Morgan lists who will receive the material and how. Priya reads alone, the day before, and checks the numbers. The rest of the leadership team hears the case live, in 15 minutes.
What would you do next?What format should Morgan choose?Think it through, then show the answer
Both. Priya decides from a document read alone, so Priya gets a two-page pre-read memo. The meeting is a live talk, so it gets a short spoken deck. Both make the same argument.
Morgan sets the memo’s order: the recommendation and the cost first, then last peak’s results, then Morgan’s estimate and how Morgan reached it. The memo runs to two pages.
For the spoken deck, Morgan plans about eight minutes of talk and leaves the rest of the slot for questions. Each slide will carry one claim and its evidence.
Morgan moves the full script from the draft slides into the speaker notes.
What would you do next?The draft has a slide with a table of on-time rates for all 13 weeks. Where does it go?Think it through, then show the answer
Into the appendix, and into the memo as a short table. In the talk, a 13-row table would be hard to read from across the room. Lesson 4 turns the same data into one line chart for the spoken deck.
Morgan builds the appendix: the weekly on-time data, the overtime hours by week, the cost breakdown, and the two customer complaint letters.

Morgan ends with two pieces that share one argument. Priya reads a two-page memo the day before. The meeting gets a short spoken deck for the 15-minute slot. Lesson 2 writes the one sentence both must prove.That answers the question you guessed at: Guess: can one slide file serve as the backing for a live talk and as a document someone reads alone?

Starter prompts

Choose the format

I need to present [topic] to [audience]. Here is how they will receive it: [when they see it, whether they read it alone or hear it live, and who else needs it later]. Recommend one of three formats: a spoken deck, a document read alone, or both. Explain the choice in three sentences, using only what I told you. If you need more information about the audience, ask me before you recommend. Do not write any slides yet.

Move the script to the notes

Here is the text of my draft slides:

[paste slide text]

For each slide, split the text into two parts. Part one stays on the slide: one claim sentence and at most a few key words. Part two goes in the speaker notes: everything I would say aloud. Keep my wording and my numbers exactly. Do not add facts or numbers. If a slide has no clear claim, write [TBD: claim] in part one.

Outline a pre-read memo

Turn these notes into an outline for a two-page memo that [reader] will read alone before the meeting:

[paste notes]

Put the recommendation and the ask in the first paragraph. Then give the evidence, then the risks, then what happens next. Use only the facts and numbers in my notes. Do not invent any figure. Mark every gap as [TBD].

When not to use AI

Deciding the format when you know the meeting’s habits better than any assistant. If your leadership team always reads a pre-read, or never does, that settles the question.
Writing the recommendation itself. An assistant can order and tighten your argument, but the recommendation is your judgment, and you answer for it in the room.
Turning a long document into slides by pasting it in and asking for a deck. The assistant will move sentences onto slides. Settle the one sentence and the claims first, in Lessons 2 and 3.

Recall from memoryWhat three questions settle whether you build a spoken deck, write a document, or make both?Answer it without looking back, then show the answer

Will the audience read it before, during or after the meeting? Will someone who missed the meeting need it later? Does the decision rest on detail the audience must check for themselves? If both kinds of use happen, make both: they share one argument but not one file.

Exercise · your project

Decide the format for your own deck and set up its parts.

Write down who will receive your deck and how: read alone, heard live, or both.
Choose a spoken deck, a document, or both, and write one sentence on why.
If you have a draft, move every full sentence you plan to say into the speaker notes.
Start an appendix, and list the backup analysis that belongs there.

Mark this lesson as done