What a presentation is for

A presentation is not a recital of slides. It is an attempt to change what someone in the room thinks or does. Everything else — the structure, the slides, the language — serves that one goal.

If at the end of your five minutes nobody in the room can name the action you wanted them to take, the presentation has failed, regardless of how polished the delivery felt.

The headline rule

Your first sentence is your most valuable resource.

Three structures, one principle

Pick the shape that fits your audience.

The principle behind all three: the audience should never be guessing where you are in the talk. Signposting — “first… second… finally…“ — is not stylistic decoration; it is navigation.

Inverted pyramid: headline first

The widest band is at the top: the most important sentence comes first. Each subsequent layer is narrower — supporting evidence, then detail. If the audience walks out at minute two, they leave with the headline.

Best for: senior audiences, short time slots, decision meetings.

Pyramid: build the case

The shape inverts: open with broad context, narrow toward evidence, end with the conclusion at the tip. The audience earns the recommendation through the journey.

Best for: audiences that need framing, technical or unfamiliar topics, longer talks where buy-in is built across the slot.

Hourglass: open broad, focus, broaden again

Open broad enough that everyone in a mixed audience finds a way in; narrow to a single sharp finding in the middle; broaden again to implications for each segment of the audience.

Best for: mixed audiences (board plus operators, investors plus engineers), or any talk where the implications matter for several different listeners.

What this part covers

The structures from Part 1 give the shape of a presentation. This part gives the words and design you use within that shape: how slides should look, how to deliver them, how to handle questions, and the phrases that hold a talk together — openings, signposts, hedges, closings.

Everything here applies to any presentation, not just to data ones. Part 3 will then layer on the specific language of describing charts.

Slides that help, slides that hurt

A bad slide makes the audience read instead of listen. A good slide gives the audience something to look at while they listen.

Three rules that cover most cases:

• One idea per slide. If a slide has two arguments, split it.
• Six lines of text, maximum. If you need more, you are writing a memo, not a slide.
• One chart per data slide, with an active title. “Q3 revenue by region” is a label. “Czechia drove all of Q3’s growth” is a slide.

If your slides could be read silently and convey the same message, you don’t need to be in the room. Always make the slide and the speaker do work the other cannot.

Visual hierarchy

The audience’s eye lands on the brightest, biggest, boldest thing first. Use that.

• Active title at the top. Bold, large, communicates the conclusion.
• One thing in colour. Everything else in grey. The colour shows what to look at first.
• Source at the bottom. Small, italic, grey. Necessary but not loud.
• No 3D, no shadows, no gradients. They distract; they don’t inform.

If you take only one habit from today: start every slide in greyscale, then add colour deliberately. This single discipline solves half of all bad slides.

Pace, voice, and silence

Q&A as part of the talk

The questions are not a separate event. They are part of the presentation, and often where the real persuasion happens.

• Repeat or paraphrase the question. “The question is whether the projection holds in a downturn — yes, let me address that…“. This buys you time, confirms understanding, and lets the rest of the room hear the question.
• Bridge to your message. “That’s a useful angle. The underlying point is…“ — you are not avoiding the question; you are answering it on your terms.
• It is fine to say you don’t know. “I don’t have that figure to hand — I’ll send it through this afternoon” is far stronger than improvising a number you cannot defend.

What to avoid

Transitions between slides

Most people simply walk to the next slide. Better speakers tell you why.

A signposted transition gives the audience permission to forget the previous slide and focus on the next one. Without it, they are still chewing on slide three when you are halfway through slide four.

Closing

Your last sentence is your second-most valuable resource. End with the action, not with thanks.

A four-point pre-flight checklist

Before any presentation, ask:

1. What is the one sentence I want them to walk away with? If you can’t say it, the talk isn’t ready.
2. What is the one action I want them to take? Same test.
3. What is the most likely objection? Pre-empt it on a slide. “You may be asking…“
4. What is my fallback if I’m cut to half the time? Know which two slides survive.

The four-point check is the difference between a presentation that might go well and one that will.

Why data needs language

A data visualisation gives the audience information. Language gives them the interpretation. Without your words, a chart is a Rorschach test — everyone reads what they came in expecting.

This part gives you the verbs, adverbs, and hedges that turn a chart on a screen into a claim about the world. Almost every grammatical tool we have used across the course — conditionals (L1), sentence adverbials (L2), modal verbs (L3), reported speech (L4) — has a job to do here.

Introducing a chart

Don’t read the title. Frame it.

Avoid: “This is a chart of…“ / “As you can see…“. Filler. Replace with a frame and a signpost (sentence adverbials, L2): “First…”, “Importantly…“, “Strategically…”.

Introducing a chart — in practice

A frame names the question, the comparison, or the timeframe — not the chart object.

Describing trends

A toolbox of verbs for the most common shapes.

Calibrating with adverbs (L2): slightly, modestly, sharply, dramatically, marginally. “Revenue rose modestly” and “revenue surged” are not the same claim. Pick what your data supports — no stronger.

Describing trends — in practice

The line earns the verb. “Held steady” and “surged” are not interchangeable.

Quantifying change

Numbers are the spine of a data presentation. The grammar around them matters.

Watch your prepositions: rose by 12% (the change), rose to 27% (the new level). Mixing them is the most common error in data English.

Quantifying change — in practice

“Churn has risen to 12%“ and “churn has risen by 12 points” are very different claims — only the second is true here.

Comparing

Three patterns will cover most cases. Modal verbs (L3) soften comparisons that are real but qualified.

Comparing — in practice

Two different patterns on the same chart: an outlier call (Łódzkie) and a ranking observation (top three).

Drawing a conclusion from data

Data does not speak for itself. You make it speak. The first conditional (L1) is the engine of the call to action.

The verb you choose — shows, suggests, indicates, hints at, is consistent with — calibrates how strong your claim is. Match the verb to the data’s strength.

Drawing a conclusion — in practice

The closing first conditional is the natural bridge from chart to ask.

Acknowledging uncertainty without losing credibility

Hedging done right makes you sound more credible, not less. The trick is hedging the claim, not the delivery, and using modal verbs (L3) to do it precisely.

Acknowledging uncertainty — in practice

may signals genuine uncertainty about the lead; should signals the caveat is necessary, not optional.

Citing sources and prior findings

Whenever you draw on someone else’s work — a forecast, a survey, a previous report — reported speech (L4) lets you bring it in cleanly without quoting at length.

A presentation that cites well sounds like the speaker has done their homework.

Citing sources — in practice

“The CFO stated that…“ is the cleanest way to bring in a forecast without quoting at length.

Your task

You will be split into six groups. Each group is handed a complete slide deck on a specific topic, with three data visualisations built in. Your job is to deliver a five-minute presentation of that deck to the rest of the class.

The slides exist already. Your work is the talk: who opens, who handles each visualisation, who closes; what claim each chart actually supports; and which words you use.

The slides on the next pages are the six decks. Find the one assigned to your group.

Twenty minutes to prepare

In your group:

• Read the deck. Make sure everyone understands every chart.
• Decide your headline. What is the one sentence you want the audience to walk away with?
• Divide the slides. Each member should speak at least once. Aim for one or two slides per speaker.
• Choose your verbs. For each chart, pick the trend verbs and adverbs that match the strength of the claim. Write them down — on paper or on phones.
• Draft your call to action. What do you want the audience (a board, a CFO, a client) to do?
• Rehearse the transitions. The hand-offs between speakers are where five-minute presentations break.

You have twenty minutes. The clock starts at the top of the workshop.

Five minutes to present

Each group has five minutes.

What I’ll be listening for:

• A headline in the first sentence
• An active title orally framed for each chart (don’t read the slide)
• Trend verbs and adverbs calibrated to the data
• Use of first conditional for the call to action (“If we approve this…“)
• Signposted transitions between speakers
• A specific call to action in the closing

Your brief

• Company: NorthStar Electronics, a Polish premium consumer-electronics retailer (22 stores in Poland)
• Audience: the board of directors. The CFO is sceptical of international expansion; the CEO is in favour
• Setting: July 2026 board meeting; you have a five-minute opening slot
• Decision sought: approval to commit €18m of capital to a phased entry into the Romanian market, beginning Q4 2026 (three flagship stores plus e-commerce; projected steady-state market share 8%, €144m annual revenue)
• Your job: present the three charts in a way that makes the case for Romania the obvious conclusion

Total addressable market

GDP per capita trajectory

Romanian market share by retailer

Your brief

• Company: Meridian Bank, a mid-sized Polish retail bank (84 branches, 2.1m customers)
• Audience: the executive committee. The Operations Director (you) is recommending the closures; the COO and Head of Retail are nervous about reputational risk
• Setting: December 2025 executive review
• Decision sought: approval to close 22 low-traffic branches by end-2026, with redeployment of 80% of affected staff to digital and customer-service roles (projected annual saving PLN 38m; 95% of affected customers live within 25 km of a retained branch)
• Your job: present the three charts in a way that makes the closures look like the obvious operational answer and reassures the audience on customer impact

Customer transactions by channel

Operating cost per customer by branch type

Customer satisfaction by segment

Your brief

• Company: Lattica Consulting, a 380-employee Warsaw-based management consultancy
• Audience: the board (six partners). The Managing Partner sponsored the review; some partners are uncomfortable with the conclusions
• Setting: quarterly board meeting, March 2025
• Decision sought: approval for a three-part intervention — structured promotion-review panels with diverse membership, a formal sponsorship programme for women at Manager level and above, and quarterly transparency reporting (cost approximately PLN 1.8m over five years)
• Your job: present the three charts in a way that makes the case for action without putting the partners in the room on the defensive

Pay gap by seniority

Promotion rates by gender

Modelled pay gap, two scenarios

Your brief

• Company: Korbex Logistics, a mid-sized European logistics operator (≈ €170m annual revenue, 1,200 employees, 380 trucks)
• Audience: the board’s investment committee. The CFO is cautious; the committee previously rejected an €8m proposal as too small
• Setting: November 2024 investment committee meeting
• Decision sought: approval to commit €15m of capital to fleet expansion, funded from retained earnings, with a 24-month deployment schedule (modelled three-year ROI 31%; even at pessimistic fuel and wage assumptions, ROI remains positive at 17%)
• Your job: present the three charts in a way that uses Q3’s strong result to make the larger investment look like the obvious next step rather than a one-quarter overreach

Quarterly revenue, actual vs forecast

Cost categories as % of revenue

Three-year ROI by scenario

Your brief

• Company: Praxis Health, a Polish healthtech startup; eighteen-person team; €1.1m current ARR; product launched six months ago
• Audience: a four-investor Series A panel. Two of the four have followed the company since seed; two are new to the deal
• Setting: pitch meeting, June 2025; this is the opening five minutes of a longer session
• Decision sought: €4m at €28m post-money, capital deployed on engineering (twelve to twenty engineers) and a four-person commercial team. Lead-investor confirmation requested by end of June
• Your job: present the three charts in a way that makes the round look obvious to fund and the upside clear, while not overclaiming on a six-month sample

Cumulative active users since launch

NPS by user engagement segment

Modelled ARR trajectory, two scenarios

Your brief

• Company: Tarsus Tech, a 600-employee Polish software company; engineering, customer success, and product teams across two offices
• Audience: the executive team — CEO, COO, CTO, CFO, Head of People (you). The CFO is concerned about productivity in distributed teams; the CTO is enthusiastic
• Setting: May 2025 executive review, after a 12-month pilot covering four teams (matched against four control teams)
• Decision sought: approval of a company-wide rollout of flexible work from Q3 2025, with a six-month transition window per team (projected: 13-point attrition reduction ≈ PLN 6.4m saved annually; productivity neutral-to-positive)
• Your job: present the three charts in a way that addresses the CFO’s productivity concern head-on while making the rollout look like the obvious next step

12-month attrition rate

Engagement-survey results

Team-level productivity index

What you’ve done today

• Reviewed the principles of designing and delivering a presentation
• Built a working vocabulary for describing data in English — trend verbs, change quantifiers, comparison patterns, calibrated claims, hedges
• Stood up in front of the class and given a five-minute presentation in English, working from real-looking slides on a real-looking business problem

What to do next

If you take only one habit from today, take this one: before any presentation in English, spend ten minutes choosing your verbs.

For each chart on each slide, write down the trend verb (rose, climbed, surged), the adverb (modestly, sharply, dramatically), and the noun (revenue, market share, attrition rate). Don’t write the sentence; just the building blocks. Then improvise around them.

This single discipline turns a nervous talk-through-the-slides into a confident piece of analysis.