Professional slides reduce what the reader has to decode. Consistent structure, visual discipline, concrete language.
Five-part bullet grammar
Structure bullets consistently:
- Characterisation: How many (Most, The majority of, Few)
- Who: The subject (customers, executives, market participants)
- Verb: The action (believe, stated, expect)
- What: The core finding (that quality improved)
- Why: The driver (due to better materials)
Example: “Most customers believe quality improved due to better materials”
Never put why before what. “Due to better materials, most customers believe quality improved” buries the point.
Not every bullet needs all five parts, but the sequence should stay consistent.
Visual formatting
Content centred vertically. Left edge of bullets aligns with left edge of tag.
12-14pt for bullets (complete sentences). 10pt for sub-bullets if needed. Never use full stops at the end of bullet points.
Keep text blocks to 4 lines maximum. Longer becomes physically hard to read.
Language discipline
Simple tenses only. Avoid “has been increasing” or “is growing” - makes the time period unclear.
Market feedback in present tense: “Customers believe…” not “Customers believed…”
Concrete details: “Revenue fell 15% in Q3” not “Performance was challenging”. Vague language destroys credibility.
Copy labels from source documents exactly. Don’t paraphrase “Early Buy Rebates” as “purchase incentives” - the audience needs to know precisely what you’re discussing.
Bullets add colour
Bullets should support the tag and chart - not describe what’s already visible.
Chart shows revenue declining and your bullet says “Revenue declined”? You’ve wasted the space. Explain why it declined, what drove it, what it means.
Quotes should directly justify the specific bullet they sit under.
How to use this
Take your last deck. Check five bullets against the five-part sequence. Find abstract language - replace with what actually happened.
Check alignment and typography. Find paragraphs over 4 lines - break them or cut content.
See also: Vertical Logic for the structure, Clear Writing for the language principles.