Narrative Arc
Structuring a technical presentation as a problem, tension and resolution rather than as an ordered dump of findings.
A presentation is not a document read aloud. Its constraint is that the audience cannot re-read, cannot skip, and will retain very little — so structure and repetition do the work that formatting does on a page.
The arc that works for technical material: the situation the audience recognises; the complication — why the current state is untenable, with evidence; the question that follows; and the answer, with its consequences.
What follows from the medium:
One idea per slide, because a slide with six points communicates none of them.
State the conclusion early and repeat it. The audience's attention is highest at the start and their retention is limited to a handful of things.
Diagrams built up progressively rather than presented complete. A finished complex diagram loses the audience in the first five seconds.
Detail moved to an appendix, referenced when someone asks. Its presence signals rigour; its absence from the main flow preserves attention.
The most common avoidable failure: presenting the analysis in the order it was performed. That order is the author's, not the audience's, and it delays the conclusion to the point where nobody is still following.