1. Title of your poster here: if you have a really long title,
that’s okay
Authors of your poser here, if you have multiple authors that’s okay, too
Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion
“Discussion” or “conclusion” doesn’t mean that you have to write out everything that your study means or every single implication you have. Use bullet points!! Stimulate conversation!
2-D charts > 3-D charts
Remember to align text
Don’t use fancy fonts
Times New Roman is best, trust me on that
People often ask if they need a “reference” section
Do YOU ever read those things?
Absolutely not
Use them if your professor asks, but it’s not necessary
You can put more valuable info on your poster than who you cited
If you want, print out a works cited sheet to give out
They make your audiences lives easier- some people are visual learners and some are verbal
Use charts whenever you can
But be careful with your text size!
Charts also make the poster not seem as boring
It’s important to pay attention to the size of your boxes. A good rule of thumb is to divide your poster width (in inches) by 4. So a 36 x 48 poster: 48/4 = 12. So each column in your poster will be 12 inches. You don’t want your text boxes taking up the full width of each column, then you’ll have no white space. I typically like to make the text boxes between 1 to 2 inches shorter in width than the column itself. For example, this poster is 48 inches wide, so each column is 12 inches, so I made this text box 11 inches. Another good rule of thumb is to not write in paragraphs like this. It makes it very difficult for your audience to read.
Bullet points are your best friend
Remember, not all of your knowledge needs to be on this poster
Leave a little room for the imagination and for people to ask questions
If you are using text, be sure to make all of your text boxes align.
If they don’t align, it might like your implying something else, like the next statement falls inside of another statement (like they’re too closely related). Or you could be implying that you’re too lazy to align your boxes.
To align your boxes, hold down “Control” and click on all of the boxes you want to align. From there, click “Format,” then “Align” (hint: it’s on the top right of the screen) Text isn’t meant to be centered. It makes it really hard to read. then click “Align Left.” You shouldn’t usually use “Align Center” unless you’re centering images.
Images are also your best friend
An image doesn’t necessarily mean a picture that you google
Charts that come in PowerPoint are AWESOME- use them!
Text isn’t meant to be centered. It makes it really hard to read.
A good graph should have consistent font, consistent colors, labels big enough to read, no lines on the background, should have a caption, should be 2-D. Be sure that you do not make a graph that looks like the one up top! PPT also makes the fonts on graphs grey instead of black. Be sure to change that
Try to use captions as much as you can. Especially for pictures (not graphs or charts necessarily). Captions should be informative. And they can be a smaller font than your normal text.
Images like this are great but they aren’t the kind of image you need on a professional poster. Graphs, tables, charts, etc- use those!
Definitely don’t right align your text. It looks weird and is hard to read.