Should I memorise the notes?

Memorise the opening sentence and the transition only. The middle should be yours in the moment — the notes exist to stop you drying up, not to be recited.

Do I really need the likely questions?

It is the highest-value part of the output. Slides are easy to prepare and questions are where presentations are actually lost or won.

Slides & storytelling

Speaker notes you can say

Get speaker notes built from short spoken sentences, a transition into the next slide, and the two questions you are most likely to be asked.

Use this the day before you present, once the slides have stopped changing.

The pattern

Copy this and replace everything in [SQUARE BRACKETS] with your own specifics.

Prompt template

Here is the slide: [HEADLINE + what is on it.]
Here is the next slide's headline: [NEXT HEADLINE.]
I have [N] seconds on this slide. I am [CONFIDENT / NERVOUS] and speaking to [WHO].

Write speaker notes I can actually say out loud:
- Sentences under 15 words. No sub-clauses, no semicolons, no words I would not say to a friend.
- Open by pointing at the one thing on the slide the audience should look at.
- One sentence of the claim. One sentence of the evidence. Do not read the slide aloud.
- End with a transition sentence that sets up the next headline.

Then: the two questions I am most likely to be asked here, and a one-sentence answer to each. Include the question I would least like to be asked.

Why each part is there

Seconds, not words: Notes are timed, not counted. Naming the time budget gets you notes that fit the slot instead of a paragraph you have to abandon halfway.
Confident or nervous: A genuinely useful lever. Nervous gets shorter sentences and a scripted opening line, which is exactly the support you need when your throat goes dry.
Under 15 words, no sub-clauses: Written prose is unsayable. Long sentences with sub-clauses collapse the moment you look up from your notes.
Do not read the slide aloud: The most common presentation failure, and the default a model falls into. Your job is to add the thing the slide cannot say.
The question I would least like to be asked: Turns anticipated anxiety into a prepared sentence. It is nearly always the question that actually comes.

Before and after

The lazy version

Write speaker notes for this slide.

What goes wrong: You get a well-written paragraph that reads beautifully and is impossible to speak — 40-word sentences, formal connectives, and a summary of what is already visible on the slide.

The pattern, filled in

Worked example

Here is the slide: "Three sensor designs failed before the fourth worked" — photos of all four sensor mounts, with the lap time under each.
Here is the next slide's headline: "The failures are what taught the team to debug."
I have 45 seconds on this slide. I am nervous and speaking to the principal and two teachers.

Write speaker notes I can actually say out loud:
- Sentences under 15 words. No sub-clauses, no semicolons.
- Open by pointing at the one thing the audience should look at.
- One sentence of claim. One sentence of evidence. Do not read the slide aloud.
- End with a transition sentence that sets up the next headline.

Then: the two questions I am most likely to be asked here, with one-sentence answers. Include the question I would least like to be asked.

What that buys you: Six short sayable sentences that open with “Look at the third photo” — plus the question you were dreading (“wasn't this a waste of four months?”) with an answer already written down, in words you would actually use.

Now do it on your own work

Take one real slide and run this. Then stand up and say the notes out loud, timed. Cross out every phrase you stumbled over and ask for those sentences again, shorter.

Check yourself — every box should be true

You said the notes out loud, standing, against a timer.
You fit the time budget without rushing the last sentence.
You crossed out at least one phrase that did not survive being spoken.
You can answer the question you least wanted to be asked in one sentence, from memory.

Then explain it back

Something that read well silently fell apart when you said it. What was different about the sentence that failed?

Write two or three sentences in your own words. If you cannot, you copied a prompt rather than learning a pattern — which is the whole difference this library is trying to make.

Does this depend on which AI tool I use?

Any assistant will do this, but house style fights you: most default to written register. Enforce the word limit explicitly, and if the output still reads like an essay, ask it to rewrite each sentence as though speaking to a friend — the instruction is more effective than any tool choice.

Why it actually works

Saying it out loud in short sentences is the strongest test of whether you understand it — the same reason every lesson here ends with you explaining the idea in your own words.

Try an explain-it-back lesson →

Prompting well is a skill you can pick up in a week. Understanding what is happening underneath is the 18-month curriculum — and it is what stays useful when the tools change.

FAQ

Should I memorise the notes?: Memorise the opening sentence and the transition only. The middle should be yours in the moment — the notes exist to stop you drying up, not to be recited.
Do I really need the likely questions?: It is the highest-value part of the output. Slides are easy to prepare and questions are where presentations are actually lost or won.

Next patterns

The Prompt Patterns Library is a separate, optional track — it does not change the 78-week curriculum or your roadmap. See what the curriculum actually covers →