Presenting Data in English: Three Sentences Per Chart
Every slide is a chart and every chart gets about forty seconds. This guide gives a three-sentence pattern for how to do a presentation in English with data - headline, one number, implication - plus accurate trend verbs and wording for missing data.
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Eleven charts, forty seconds each, and a room that has already read the slide before you open your mouth. Most presenters spend those forty seconds reading what everyone can see, then run out of time for the only part that was theirs to add.
Why the numbers on the slide are not the message
An audience reads faster than anyone speaks, so a chart is understood before the second sentence arrives. Reading the figures aloud converts a visual into a list, and a list carries no claim. What the room cannot get from the slide is your judgement: which movement matters, how big it is next to the others, and what it means for the decision in the room.
The Office for National Statistics guidance behind the EU data visualisation guide puts the same idea on the chart itself: a title should state the main message in ten words or less, with time frame, units and geography moved into the subtitle (accessed 4 November 2026). If your chart title already does that, your first sentence has a script.
The three-sentence pattern: headline, one number, implication
Three sentences do the work of a paragraph, and the order is what makes them land. The lines below are original practice material.
| Sentence | Its job | An example |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | States what changed, in ten words | Revenue in the north region has fallen for the third quarter running. |
| One number | Carries the claim with a single figure | It is down eleven per cent year on year. |
| Implication | Says what follows for the room | If that holds, we miss the regional target in March. |
One number, not five. The second sentence is where presenters lose the pattern: a list of figures asks the audience to do arithmetic while you keep talking, and nobody can listen and calculate at once. Pick the figure that would make someone ask a question if you left it out.
The third sentence is the one that gets cut when time runs short, and it is the only one the room can act on. Say it even if you drop the second.
How to do a presentation in English when every slide is a chart
Forty seconds is about ninety words at a measured pace, which is three sentences, one transition and a pause. The pause is not spare time; it is where the room decides whether to ask something, and a presenter who fills it removes the only signal that the point landed.
Chart to chart, the transition does one of two jobs. It either connects the claim you just made to the next one, or it names the exception before someone else does: That is the national picture; the north is the exception, and it is on the next slide.
Trend and comparison verbs, with the adverb that keeps them true
The verbs are easy and the prepositions are where accuracy goes. Revenue rose to 4.2 million means it ended there; revenue rose by 4.2 million means that was the size of the change. Fell from 12 to 9 per cent and fell to 9 per cent are different claims about where it started.
Adverbs decide how strong the sentence is, so they have to match the chart rather than your mood. Use sharply and steadily only where the line shows it; use marginally when the movement is inside the noise. Doubled and halved are exact, and they are worth using where they are true, because they are heard faster than percentages. Significantly on its own says nothing a listener can check, so replace it with the number.
Comparison needs the reference point spoken out loud: Twice the volume of the second region, half the cost per unit, the same as last year but on a third more volume. Without the reference, a comparison is a claim with a missing half.
Saying what the data does not cover
Incomplete data is normal, and the failure to announce it is what turns a good review into an argument three weeks later. Two sentences cover most cases. That figure covers ten of the twelve months; November and December are still open. And: The base is small, so I would treat the ranking as indicative rather than final.
For estimates, name the source and the date: This is our forecast from the September model, and it predates the price change. For a margin, give the range rather than the midpoint: The estimate is between eight and eleven per cent, and the wide end is the right planning number.
What to avoid is the apology that ends the discussion: Sorry, the data is not great. It tells the room to distrust everything without telling them which part to trust. Say what is missing, say what you did instead, and move to the decision the partial data still supports.
Pointing at a shared screen without saying this one
This one and here stop working the moment the screen is shared, because the cursor is on your machine and the room is looking at a rectangle the size of a postcard. Point with the chart's own vocabulary instead: the darker bar on the left, the second column, the dotted line, the top right corner. Order helps too: the three bars on the right, from tallest to shortest.
On a call, add the label rather than the position: the 2024 line, the one that flattens after June. If you have to use your cursor, move it once and leave it still; a cursor circling a chart reads as nervousness and pulls attention away from the number you are saying.
The forty-second rehearsal, chart by chart
Rehearse against the timer, one chart at a time, and stop at forty seconds even mid-sentence. The interruption is the point: it teaches you how much room the pattern actually needs.
- Say the three sentences with no slide in front of you, from the headline you wrote.
- Start the timer, say them again with the chart, and stop at forty.
- Ask a listener to repeat your headline back; if they cannot, the headline was a description.
- Mark the chart that needed a fourth sentence and either cut the sentence or cut the chart.
Ten charts rehearsed this way take about half an hour, and the ones that fail the third step are the ones that will invite the questions you cannot answer.
Frequently asked questions
How do I describe a trend in English?
Name the direction with a verb, then give the size with the preposition that matches it: rose by four per cent, rose to four per cent. Add one adverb only where the chart shows it, and say the period out loud, because a trend without a period is not a trend. If the line is flat, say flat: It has been level since March is a finding, not a failure to find one.
What do I say if the data is incomplete?
Say which part is missing, which part you are using, and what the partial picture still supports: Ten months are in, and even without the last two the direction holds. Then give the next date when the full figure lands. Never fill the gap with a plausible estimate without labelling it as one.