Making Effective Poster Presentations

Additional Preliminary Research  Talk with PIs, advisors, mentors  Analyze audience  Involve all appropriate parties

Overview  What is a poster presentation?  What information should you include?  How should you write up your poster sections?

What is a poster presentation? A way to present your research, regardless of stage, in a clear, concise, graphic format to engage people who are interested in discussion, correspondence or funding.

Poster components  Research presented visually  Many posters displayed in rows  Browsed by a number of viewers  Oral explanation of 5-10 minutes

What information should you include?

Questions to ask yourself  What background information does this audience need to understand the research?  How does this project fit into the context of research in the field or in a research group?  How can I connect my topic to something the audience can understand?  What parts of the research process must your audience understand to grasp the point?

Features to include  Present only essential findings  Same information as a paper or talk  Not as detailed as a paper or talk Simplify, simplify, simplify!!

Individuals’ research worksheet Please take five to ten minutes to outline ideas and information you already have on the worksheet provided.

Overview of Poster Sections  Title  Authors and institution  Abstract  Rationale  Methods and Results  Conclusion and acknowledgements

Sections  Title  Should be specific  Indicates question addressed  Presents most important results  Authors and institution

Sections: Abstract  Purpose  Methods and scope  Findings  Conclusions  Recommendations

Sections: Rationale  Brief background  Research context

Sections: Methods and Results  Methods  Condensed version of methods section  Most important information  List of steps or flowchart  Results  Significant findings  Supporting data

Sections: Conclusion and Acknowledgements  Conclusion  Importance & relevance of results  Take-home message  Acknowledgements  Collaborators  Sources of financial support

Workshop Activity In groups, please take 20 minutes to use the techniques we have outlined to decide what you would include in a poster presentation on the Wilson, Batty, and Dill (2003) article. Your group will be asked to present your decisions about what to include after we come back together.

How should you write the sections for your poster?

Consider audience and approach Audiences can have different levels of base knowledge. In groups, please pick one person’s research project and write a 30 second description of it suitable for the each of the following audiences: 1) your grandmother 2) a scientist in another field 3) a scientist in your field

The writing process  Strategize. Brainstorm to establish:  Main focus  Intriguing title  Necessary details  Take-home message  Organization  Structure logically  Stick to the main focus  Make lists

The writing process  Revision  Edit for:  Punctuation  Spelling and grammar  Clarity  Style  Simplicity  Audience

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