Speaker notes are cues, not a script. For each slide, write the few key words that bring back what you will say, the exact wording of anything that must be said exactly, the source you will name aloud, the sentence that takes you to the next slide, and a time mark. Then rehearse from those notes until a glance is enough.
This guide is published by EdCitation, whose tools look references up in the publisher's record and never write any part of a presentation or its notes. It draws on communication-centre and study-skills pages from nine universities and colleges, an open textbook, and the help pages of PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides, all read on 27 September 2026. Where your notes name sources, EdCitation's free Cite a source builds each reference, and Check your paper reads a presentation brief into a checklist.
Structure and timing are in the guide to writing a speech; keeping your eyes off the screen is in how to present without reading your slides.
What should I put in speaker notes?
Put in whatever you would otherwise forget, and nothing you already know. The presentation apps describe notes the same way: Microsoft (n.d.) calls the Notes pane the place for the talking points you want to mention, and Apple (n.d.) says Keynote's presenter notes help you recall important points. In both, the audience sees the slide and only you see the notes. Google (n.d.) shows them in Google Slides' presenter view.
From the university guides we read, notes usually hold six kinds of thing:
- Key words that trigger a whole point. McCarty (n.d.) calls it choosing the word that sets off a recall sequence.
- Delivery cues such as "pause", "click" or "point to chart". Hamilton College's Oral Communication Center (n.d.) says to write them in another colour so you do not read them out; Sheridan College Library and Learning Services (2026) suggests italics for words to stress.
- Time marks, the minute you should have reached by each slide (University of Southampton Library, 2026).
- Transitions. Sheridan says to add speaking notes and transitions to PowerPoint's Notes section.
- Sources to say aloud, in the short spoken form you will use, such as "Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013".
- Anything that must be exact: quotations, figures, names, definitions.
The exceptions: quotations, figures and technical terms
The key-word rule has one agreed exception. McCarty allows a card for an exact quotation, written with its citation, but only for a quotation central to the talk. Hamilton suggests giving a direct quotation a card of its own. Southampton suggests short definitions in the notes for what is hard to remember, naming statistics, technical terms and complex ideas. Write those out word for word, and check each figure against its source before it goes in.
How much should speaker notes say?
As little as will still get you through, in most guides' view, and the guides differ on where that line sits. Concordia University's Student Success Centre (n.d.) puts it in capitals: no full sentences in your notes, because full sentences tempt you to read. Newcastle University (n.d.) is gentler: you can script and read aloud if that makes you comfortable, though a script can make delivery flat, and memorising can make it easier to overrun or miss a point. McCarty proposes five cards in all: one for the introduction, one for each of three main points, one for the conclusion.
Our view: write short notes for the talk itself, and treat a full script as a drafting stage. London Metropolitan University's library (n.d.) says the same: if you write a script, reduce it to key words for your cue cards.
Full script, key points or cue cards?
When to choose a full script over notes has a later guide of its own in this series; this table is the short version.
| Format | What it holds | When it works | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full script | Every word, with cues for slides and gestures | Drafting, to learn what fits the time; a talk you must word exactly | Sheridan (2026); Newcastle (n.d.) |
| Notes pane in the slide app | Talking points and transitions for each slide, hidden from the audience | Presenting from a laptop with presenter view | Microsoft (n.d.); Apple (n.d.) |
| A printed page per slide | Key points in large type, with room to add thoughts | A lectern; turning the page reminds you to change slide | University of Southern California Libraries (2026) |
| Cue cards for a presentation | One point a card, key words, numbered, one side only | Standing without a lectern; short talks | McCarty (n.d.); Hamilton (n.d.) |
| Notes to hand in | Fuller sentences, sources cited in the course's style, references built with Cite a source | When the brief asks for notes or a script | Durham University Common Awards (n.d.) |
Speaker notes examples: one slide, two ways
The example below is ours, written for this guide: slide 4 of a ten-minute class presentation on study techniques. The slide itself reads "Practice testing: high utility. Rereading: low utility. (Dunlosky et al., 2013)." The finding is from Dunlosky et al. (2013), who rated ten learning techniques and gave practice testing and distributed practice high utility, and rereading and highlighting low.
Notes for your own eyes
This is what goes in the notes pane or on the card:
SLIDE 4 [by 3:30]
TESTING beats REREADING
Say: "Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013, a review of ten techniques"
Testing + spacing = HIGH. Rereading + highlighting = LOW
Example: blank page, write all you remember, then check [PAUSE]
Ask: "Hands up if you reread before exams?" [LOOK UP]
Link: "So testing works. But when? Slide 5: spacing." [CLICK]
Every line is a trigger, not a sentence to read, except the two you must say exactly: the source and the link to slide 5. Cues sit in brackets so they are never read aloud.
Notes to hand in
If the brief asks for notes to be submitted, the same slide needs sentences a marker who was not there can follow:
Slide 4. Practice testing works better than rereading. Dunlosky et al. (2013) reviewed ten learning techniques and rated practice testing and distributed practice as high utility, and rereading and highlighting as low utility. A simple way to test yourself is to write down everything you remember on a blank page, then check it against your notes. The next slide turns to when to test yourself: spacing.
How to say a citation aloud is the subject of a separate guide in this series.
How do I write speaker notes, step by step?
Write the talk first, then cut it down to cues, then test the cues by rehearsing. The steps below are ours, built from the guides cited.
- Read the brief for the time limit, the slide limit and whether notes are handed in. EdCitation's Check your paper reads a brief into a checklist, free.
- Find and cite the sources for each claim. Find sources searches about 300 million published works; Cite a source builds each reference.
- Draft what you will say for each slide, in full if that helps you plan.
- Cut each slide's draft to key words, one line per point.
- Write out the exceptions word for word: quotations, figures, the source's spoken form.
- Add cues in another colour or in brackets: pause, click, look up.
- Add a time mark to each slide.
- Write the link into the next slide.
- Rehearse aloud from the notes and rewrite any cue that failed you.
- Check the reference list with Verify references before you hand anything in.
How do I rehearse from speaker notes?
Rehearse aloud from the notes you will use on the day, and treat each run as a test of the notes as much as of you. Southampton says to practise with your speaker notes.
Revise the notes as you go
McCarty suggests numbering the cards, practising with them, and rewriting a card that does not work, the way you would revise an outline. Hamilton makes the same point: practice shows which notes are unclear before the audience does. A cue you had to stare at needs larger letters or a better trigger word; a point you forgot needs a word on the card; a line you never looked at can go.
Know it without memorising it
Concordia advises rehearsing aloud with the cards until you know the material well but have not memorised it. Newcastle suggests a timed read-through to check you are not fitting too much in, and practising early enough to change things. Our rule of thumb: when your time marks and the clock agree two runs in a row, the notes are finished.
What if my speaker notes are assessed or submitted?
Then they are part of what you hand in, and the brief, not a study-skills page, decides what they must contain.
Durham University's Common Awards guidelines for oral presentations (n.d.) are the clearest we found: you may be asked to give your notes, script or slides to the tutor before or after the presentation, and that sources you refer to should appear in the notes or script, referenced in your institution's style. If you are told in advance to submit notes, they may be expected to stand alone for a reader who was not present. The delivery is what is assessed, so the notes' presentation is not marked, though poor spelling can make them harder to follow.
The University of York's guide to assessed presentations (n.d.) lists what is handed in for each format: a slide deck as .pptx or .pdf for a live talk, and a .pptx with audio narration for a narrated deck. It says nothing about notes, so if your notes are not meant to be read, ask before you upload.
We could not confirm any general rule on whether notes count towards a word limit. That is set course by course, so look for it in the brief.
Which EdCitation tools help with speaker notes?
EdCitation handles what your notes take from elsewhere, the brief and the sources. It never writes any part of a presentation or its notes, and it gives no grade. We ran its free tools on 27 September 2026.
Cite a source, for the references your notes name
Cite a source is the best tool for the references behind a slide or a set of submitted notes, because it looks each source up in the publisher's record rather than composing one, which no chatbot does. It works from a DOI, a title, a PubMed ID, an ISBN or a web address, in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, and screens each source for retraction, free with no account.
For 10.1177/1529100612453266 it read the record from Crossref, found no retraction notice, and returned:
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
The title, deposited in title case, is set in sentence case, as APA 7 asks.
For a web page, https://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice, it read the page, found no author or date, and put the title first:
Retrieval practice. (n.d.). The Learning Scientists. Retrieved September 27, 2026, from https://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice
A web page's details can be corrected before the entry is built. With the organisation marked as the author, it returned "The Learning Scientists. (n.d.). Retrieval practice. Retrieved September 27, 2026, from https://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice". The guide to citing a website in APA 7 explains each part.
Check your paper, for a brief that asks for notes
Check your paper, free, reads an assignment's instructions into a checklist, each rule beside the sentence it came from. We pasted a brief of our own: a ten-minute talk, at most 12 slides, at least four academic sources with two from 2015 or later in APA 7, a references slide, and a .pptx with speaker notes for every slide, the notes at most 1,500 words with an in-text citation wherever a source is used. It returned four rules:
| What it asks | Asked for |
|---|---|
| Word count | At most 1,500 words |
| Sources (academic) | At least 4 sources |
| Source dates | At least 2 sources: 2015 or later |
| Citation style | APA 7 |
Each came with its sentence: the word count with "The speaker notes must not exceed 1,500 words in total and must include an in-text citation wherever you use a source.", so it is plainly the notes' limit. It set aside the ten-minute task, "Include a References slide at the end." and "Presentations over 11 minutes will be stopped.", and listed the slide limit and the .pptx requirement as "Slides are not checked here". Keep the time limits and the slide rules on your own list. Theoretics QA, part of Max at $24 a month, judges a written paper against its instructions, with quotations from it, and never rewrites anything.
Quick questions
What should I write in speaker notes?
Key words for each point, delivery cues, a time mark, the link to the next slide, the source you will name aloud, and any quotation or figure word for word.
Should speaker notes be full sentences?
Usually not: Concordia's Student Success Centre advises against full sentences because they tempt you to read. Notes you must hand in are the exception, since Durham's guidelines say submitted notes may need to stand alone.
How many cue cards should I use for a presentation?
As few as work. One open textbook proposes five in all, one for the introduction, one per main point and one for the conclusion, numbered and written on one side.
Can the audience see my speaker notes?
Not in presenter view: Microsoft and Apple both say notes show on your screen only. If you hand in the slide file, ask whether the notes will be read.
Can EdCitation write my speaker notes?
No. EdCitation never writes any part of a presentation or its notes. Cite a source builds the references your notes name, and Check your paper reads the brief into a checklist.
References
- Apple. (n.d.). Add and view presenter notes in Keynote on Mac. Keynote User Guide. https://support.apple.com/guide/keynote/add-and-view-presenter-notes-tand1a4ee7c/mac
- Concordia University Student Success Centre. (n.d.). Preparing presentation notes. https://www.concordia.ca/students/success/learning-support/resources/oral-presentations/presentation-notes.html
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
- Durham University Common Awards. (n.d.). Common Awards assessment guidelines: Oral presentations [PDF]. Durham University. https://www.durham.ac.uk/media/durham-university/departments-/common-awards/documents/assessment-documents/guidance-documents/Assessment-Guidelines_Oral-Presentations.pdf
- Google. (n.d.). Present slides. Google Docs Editors Help. https://support.google.com/docs/answer/1696787
- Hamilton College Oral Communication Center. (n.d.). Preparing and using notecards. Hamilton College. https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/oralcommunication/guides/preparing-and-using-notecards-1
- London Metropolitan University Library. (n.d.). Presentations. Writing and assignments. https://libguides.londonmet.ac.uk/writing-and-assignments/presentations
- McCarty, D. (n.d.). Using notes effectively. In Stand up speak out (Section 14.3). Pressbooks. https://ufl.pb.unizin.org/suso/chapter/14-3-using-notes-effectively-stand-up-speak-out/
- Microsoft. (n.d.). Add speaker notes to your slides. Microsoft Support. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-speaker-notes-to-your-slides-26985155-35f5-45ba-812b-e1bd3c48928e
- Newcastle University. (n.d.). Presentations. Academic Skills Kit. https://www.ncl.ac.uk/academic-skills-kit/assessment/assignment-types/presentations/
- Sheridan College Library and Learning Services. (2026, September 16). Writing a presentation script. Sheridan College. https://sheridancollege.libguides.com/presentationskills/creating-your-presentation/writing-a-presentation-script
- University of Southampton Library. (2026, January 15). Presentation skills: Study skills. https://library.soton.ac.uk/sash/presentation-skills
- University of Southern California Libraries. (2026, June 3). Giving an oral presentation. Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Assignments. https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/assignments/oralpresentation
- University of York. (n.d.). Tools for assessed presentations. Guides for Online Learning Tools. https://vle-support.york.ac.uk/assessment/assessed-presentation/