The short answer
A presentation script is the words you say over each slide, written to fit your time slot. Start from the time: speech runs at about 140 words a minute, so a 20-minute slot is about 2,800 words. Share that budget across the slides by how much each one carries, give a cover or divider slide one line, and write each slide’s script to say what the slide only points at, never to read it out. Open with the answer, link each slide to the next, and end on the ask.
What a presentation script is
A finished deck is not a talk. Slides carry the numbers, charts and titles; the script carries the reasoning between them: why this number matters, what the audience should conclude, and how it leads to the next slide. A presenter who reads the slides aloud gives the audience the same information twice and the argument not at all.
A good script has four parts: an opening that states the answer and why the audience should care, a line per slide that explains what the slide shows, a transition that links each slide to the next, and a close that repeats the recommendation and makes the ask.
Time is words: the budget
Most people speak at about 140 words a minute in a presentation. That makes a time budget and a word budget the same number in two units, and it is the first thing to calculate, before any sentence is written.
| Slot | Words at 140 a minute | Slides it can carry |
|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 700 | 3 to 5 |
| 10 minutes | 1,400 | 5 to 10 |
| 20 minutes | 2,800 | 10 to 20 |
| 30 minutes | 4,200 | 15 to 30 |
The last column uses the common guideline of one to two minutes a slide. It also exposes an impossible brief. Thirty slides in ten minutes is about 20 seconds a slide, or 47 words: not enough to explain anything. That is not a pacing problem to solve by talking faster. The options are to cut the deck to about 12 slides, extend the slot to about 20 minutes, or present the titles only.
Within the budget, not every slide gets the same share. A cover or a section divider needs one line. The seconds saved go to the slides that carry the decision: the recommendation, the business case and the risk.
How to write each slide’s script
1. Say what the slide only points at
If a slide shows a chart of costs rising, the script does not say “this chart shows costs rising”. It says why they rose, what that costs, and what the audience should conclude.
2. Open with the answer
The first minute states the recommendation and the reason the audience should care now. A sceptical audience given the conclusion late spends the intervening slides building objections.
3. Write the transitions
One sentence at the end of each slide that sets up the next: “That is the size of the gap. The next question is why it keeps widening.” Without transitions, a script is a list of separate speeches.
4. Write for the ear
Short sentences, one number per sentence, and each number said in the form it will be heard: “twenty-four million”, not “$24M”. A listener cannot re-read a sentence they missed.
5. Count before you finish
Count the words on every slide and compare the total with the budget. If the script runs more than about 15% over or under the slot, tighten or expand it before rehearsal, not during.
Worked example: Halcyon Financial
The scenario
Twelve slides, twenty minutes, a $24 million ask
Halcyon Financial is a regional bank with $9 billion of assets. Its COO has a finished 12-slide deck asking the board for $24 million across three AI platforms. The same board has written off $31 million on two technology programmes in five years, and two of the directors who sat through both are still in the room.
Twelve slides in twenty minutes averages 1 minute 40 seconds, or about 233 words, a slide. The cover and the divider get one line each, so the recommendation and the business case get more.
The script opens on the question every director is already thinking: why this will not be a third write-off. It answers that before it presents the opportunity. The money is released at four gates, the board can stop the programme at any of them, and $6 million is at risk before the first measured result, not $24 million.
One slide, two voices
The same slide can be said in two very different registers. This is Halcyon’s cost-to-income slide, the one that shows the bank spending more to run itself than its peers.
| Voice | What the presenter says |
|---|---|
| Wide audience: explainers, courses, webinars, AI avatars | “Here’s the thing. For every dollar this bank earns, it now spends sixty-four cents just running itself. Five years ago that was fifty-eight. The banks that leaned into digital went the other way — they’re down at forty-nine. That gap is what the next twenty minutes is about.” |
| Executive: board readouts, investor pitches | “Our cost-to-income ratio rose six point one points while digitally-led peers cut theirs by eight point six. The gap is fourteen point nine points and widening, and at current revenue every point is worth five point four million dollars of pre-tax income.” |
Neither voice reads the chart. Both say what the chart means: the size of the gap, the direction it is moving and what it is worth. The cost-to-income ratio is operating cost as a share of operating income; lower is better.
Try it: the one-slide script
This is one module of the Presentation Script Generator, rewritten to run on its own. Paste one slide and say how long you have for it.
You are a former speechwriter for chief executives who has written board readouts and investor presentations. Speech runs at about 140 words a minute, so a time budget is a word budget. A script says what the slide only points at: it never reads the slide aloud.
THE SLIDE:
- The slide's title and content: [paste the text, numbers and a description of any chart]
- Where it sits in the deck: [e.g. slide 3 of 12, after the situation, before the options]
- The audience: [board / executives / customers / general audience]
- Seconds you have for this slide: [e.g. 90]
Produce:
1. THE WORD BUDGET. The seconds converted to words at 140 a minute.
2. THE SCRIPT. The spoken words for this slide in an executive voice: answer first, one number per sentence, every number written as it is said aloud ("twenty-four million", not "$24M"). Within 10% of the word budget.
3. THE TRANSITION. One sentence that ends this slide and sets up the next one.
4. THE CHECK. The word count, the estimated seconds, and any sentence that only repeats what is already on the slide, rewritten.
Use only the figures on the slide. If the slide has no clear point to say aloud, say so rather than filling the time.
This module scripts one slide in one voice. The full Generator paces the whole deck, runs the impossible-brief check, writes the opening, transitions and close, gives both voices, and formats the script for text-to-speech.
Scripts for an AI voice or avatar
A text-to-speech voice reads exactly what is written, so the script has to be formatted for the ear before it goes in. Numbers and symbols are spelled as spoken (“one point two million dollars”, “forty-two percent”), abbreviations are expanded (“the third quarter”, not “Q3”), and commas and full stops are placed where a speaker would pause. An acronym read letter by letter or a symbol read as its name is the most common reason an AI-voiced presentation sounds wrong.
Checks before you rehearse
- The total word count is within about 15% of the slot.
- The opening states the recommendation in the first minute.
- No slide’s script reads the slide aloud.
- Every slide ends with a transition to the next.
- Every number is written the way it will be said.
- The close repeats the ask in one sentence.
Questions
How many words is a 10-minute presentation?
About 1,400 words at a typical presenting pace of 140 words a minute. A 5-minute talk is about 700 words and a 20-minute talk about 2,800.
How long should I spend on each slide?
One to two minutes is a common guideline. Give a cover or divider slide a single line, and spend the time saved on the slides that carry the recommendation and the business case.
Should I read from a script when presenting?
Write the full script, rehearse from it, then present from the transitions and key numbers. A written script is how you find out whether the talk fits the time before you are in the room.
Can AI write speaker notes from my slides?
Yes, if you give it the slides, the audience, the time and the rule that it must not repeat the slide. Without those, it tends to turn each bullet point into a sentence, which is the slide read aloud.
Written by a former Gartner Managing Partner and investment banking SVP
The guides and the prompt templates on this site come from a career spent building these documents: board decks, forecasts, business cases and hiring decisions, as Managing Partner at Gartner, SVP in investment banking and Country Manager at international subsidiaries. The worked examples are published in full on each product page. Browse the Prompt Library.
Halcyon Financial is a fictional company and its figures are illustrative.
Output from any AI tool should be reviewed before use.