Slides that
help, not hide.
A slide serves the audience, not the speaker. Today: design that earns its place, and figures you can explain out loud.
Last week, in brief.
- A talk is a performance, not a read-aloud essay.
- Manage three channels at once, words, voice, body; the pause is your strongest tool.
- Open with a hook; signpost every turn.
Your annotated bibliography, your first graded homework.
The slides behind you, design that helps the audience instead of hiding you.
This week.
- What a slide is for
- Text, font, colour limits
- The four CRAP principles
- Redesigning a bad slide
- Choosing the right chart
- Describing a figure in four steps
- Citing visuals on slides
- Explain a chart on your feet
Figures & Charts guide (referencing + the 4-step description framework) · plus the slide-design section of Adapting an Essay into a Presentation.
The slide is
for them.
Not a teleprompter for you. If you could deliver the talk without the slide, the slide is doing its job, supporting, not replacing, your voice.
Five rules for every slide.
- Keywords, not sentences, you say the sentence
- 5 to 7 lines maximum, one idea per slide
- Titles ~40pt, body ~24pt, readable from the back
- 2 to 4 colours, consistent across the deck
- One chart or image earns more than five bullets
A wall of full sentences you then read aloud. The audience reads faster than you speak, you've lost them by line two.
C · R · A · P
Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity. Four ideas that separate a designed slide from a decorated one.
What each one asks of you.
Contrast
If two things differ, make them really differ. Timid contrast looks like a mistake.
Repetition
Repeat fonts, colours and spacing so the deck feels like one voice.
Alignment
Nothing placed arbitrarily. Every element lines up with something.
Proximity
Group related things; separate unrelated ones. Space carries meaning.
Master these four and you never need a template, your slides organise themselves.
- Of the four, which do student slides get wrong most often, and how would you spot it?
Same content, redesigned.
Contrast (big claim), proximity (grouped facts), repetition (one bullet style), alignment (a single left edge). The words you cut, you say.
Think of the worst slide you've ever had to sit through. What made it unbearable?
- → Was it the text, the chart, or the speaker reading it?
- → Which CRAP principle would have rescued it?
- → What's one slide in your own deck you now want to cut in half?
Pick the right
picture.
The chart type is an argument. Choose the one that makes your point obvious, then say the point out loud anyway.
Four jobs, four shapes.
Line
A trend over time. Renewable adoption, 2000 to 2020.
Bar
A comparison. Solar vs wind output.
Pie
Proportions of a whole. Max 5 to 6 slices.
Table
Precise numbers that resist a graph.
Limit pie slices to six. Don't overcrowd tables, bold or colour the one number that matters. Make every visual readable from the back row.
Four steps to
describe a figure.
Don't assume the audience reads a chart the way you do. Walk them through it.
The figure-description framework.
Introduce
Name the figure and its purpose. Present tense.
Explain
What it shows, axes, lines, colours.
Emphasise
The single most important point. Past tense.
Discuss
Significance, connect it to your argument.
One pie chart, four sentences.
Figure 3. Sources of computer-virus infection, US businesses (2024).
“Figure 3 shows the most common sources of computer viruses for US businesses.”
“The pie categorises infections by type, with email attachments and downloads the largest.”
“Nearly 90% originate from email attachments.”
“This underscores the need for attachment screening and user training.”
Notice: the chart shows the data; the speaker supplies the meaning. The audience never has to guess what they're looking at.
Cite the picture, three ways.
Small source line at the bottom: Source: Smith (2020), Journal of Environmental Studies.
Say it: “According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Environmental Studies…”
A final slide lists every source in full, in your citation style.
A chart or photo you didn't make needs a citation just like a quotation. Image: Unsplash.
Cut the slide in half
Take the “Before” slide from earlier. Apply CRAP and the slide rules:
- Write a claim as the title, not a topic label.
- Reduce the body to three keyword lines.
- Decide what you will say that the slide no longer shows.
Swap slides. Can your partner deliver a sentence from each line, without reading it verbatim?
Describe a figure in four steps
Bring up one chart you might use in Presentation 1 — or use Figure 4. Stand and describe it using the framework.
- Introduce it, then explain the axes.
- Emphasise the one data point that matters.
- Discuss what it means for your argument.
Could you follow the chart from the words alone, eyes closed? If not, which step was missing?
Try it: solar dominates the year's new capacity; wind barely registers — why?
Homework & what's next.
- Build your Presentation 1 slides, CRAP applied
- Prepare one figure you can describe in four steps
- Add a reference slide
Presentation 1. You deliver your topic proposal, hook, thesis, structure, and one well-described visual. Bring it ready.
Today in one slide.
- The slide serves the audience, not you
- Keywords, ≤7 lines, 2 to 4 colours
- CRAP: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity
- Match the chart type to the job
- Describe figures: Introduce, Explain, Emphasise, Discuss
- Cite visuals on the slide, out loud, and at the end
Show less.
Mean more.
Week 04 · Next, Presentation 1