This Element is an excerpt from Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition (ISBN: 9780137144174) by Jerry Weissman. Available in print and digital formats.

Why fewer words are better — and practical ways to slash the unnecessary text in your next presentation!

Legibility and speed are equally important. When you create a text slide containing bullets, you are, in effect, presenting headlines only. Where does the body text appear? Not on any slide. As the presenter, it is your job to put flesh on the bones of the headline bullets. The presenter provides the body text; the presenter is the focus of the presentation.