Presentation Skills That Will Take You to the Top (Collection), 2/e

26. David Letterman’s Top Ten

Pick a Number

In his nearly two decades as the host of CBS’s Late Show, David Letterman has made his nightly reading of his “Top Ten”¹ list a social ritual of American culture. Mr. Letterman uses his list for comic effect, but you can use the same approach to create a structure for your presentations.

Authors Stephen R. Covey and Deepak Chopra used the numbering technique as the structure of their respective bestsellers, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. The popular Politico website² regularly calls out their Top Five or Six or Seven takeaways from the political events they cover; how-to newspaper and magazine articles add sidebar boxes that summarize their main tips ...