BASIN ANALYSIS AND PETROLEUM GEOLOGY COURSEWORK

DEADLINE: 11 am THURSDAY 19TH MARCH 2015

Your task is to produce a poster for the above deadline. It will count for 40% of the marks for
the unit. You will present your posters during a session in BK 3.06 from 11:00-14:00 on
Thursday the 19th of March 2015. Your posters will be collected at the end of the session.
Posters should contain approximately 1000-1500 words.
The topic of the poster will be the sedimentary and structural development of a
particular petroleum-bearing basin.
Each poster should include a summary of the basin history. Other information/sections that
you may want to include could cover: introduction; basin setting; origin and nature of the
source rocks; migration pathway; nature of the reservoir rocks; the type of seal and trap;
structural history in relation to timing of key events in the formation of the petroleum play, etc.
Your poster should be illustrated using (for example): structural cross sections; sedimentary
and well logs; stratigraphic columns; deep crustal seismic images, etc.
Posters should be no larger than A1. They may be prepared using vector graphics packages
such as CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator.
During the poster session, all groups will be required to be present their posters and
must come prepared to answer questions on their poster this forms part of the
assessment!
Examples of posters from other units are displayed on the walls of the corridors in SEES.
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How to produce a good poster

Structure
Like other types of academic writing, an academic poster should be well organised, with
clear headings and subheadings. Sections that you may want to include for this specific task
could cover: introduction; basin setting; origin and nature of the source rocks; migration
pathway; nature of the reservoir rocks; the type of seal and trap; structural history in relation
to timing of key events in the formation of the petroleum play, etc.
Poster design
Once youve identified your main content and structure, you need to identify the graphics and
formatting which will communicate your message best. How will you organise your content
visually? How might you use colour and type to enhance visual impact? It is usually best to
design from the outside in, thinking about the general purpose before the details.

Visual impact
Posters are designed to convey a message quickly and efficiently. What should your viewer
see and understand first?
1. Think what will communicate your key points most clearly
2. Find a focal point that will help draw your viewers in. This might be a key flowchart or
diagram, or simply a clear main title
3. Make sure important graphics or information stand out clearly in your design
4. Remember, you may not need graphics if words are most powerful
Layout
What visual arrangement will suit your content best, and how you lead the reader through it?
1. Try to provide a clear entry point for readers, and a logical visual flow
2. Group related information
3. Use numbering or arrows if linked content should be read in a particular order
4. Avoid either oversimplifying (too little useful information) or overcomplicating (too
much information)
5. Use negative space and margins to give your content room to breathe
6. Once the basic layout is planned you can consider graphic and test formatting in
more detail
7. A poster should be legible from about one meter, and attract interest from about five
meters
8. For clarity, use a sans-serif font like Arial or Helvetica. Make sure there is good
contrast between text and background
9. To be legible at a distance, the main title should be around 70-100 points,
subheadings around 40 points, body of text around 24 points
10. Format headings and subheading consistently. This helps structure your information
visually
Use of graphics
An academic poster should be both professional and concise, so a general rule is only to
include graphics that really support your content.
1. Use diagrams, graphs or flowcharts to help explain complex information visually
2. Try not to use too many different or strongly contrasting colours. A limited colour
palette can be very effective
3. Avoid using unnecessary and distracting background textures or decoration
4. If your topic has a central statement, graphics or diagram, make this prominent in
your design. Dont hide it in a corner
5. Every graph should have a purpose
Referencing
When researching the content for your poster, you should be focussing on the primary
scientific literature. Web resources such as Wikipedia are ok for doing basic searches (but
remember that not everything on the internet is accurate) and then you should follow-up the
links that they have to the original sources. Google Scholar, Web of Science etc. are
recommended as search engines for primary scientific literature. Sources should be
referenced in the text and a reference list provided (this is not included in your word count).
To save words and space, you may wish use the use the superscript numbering style of
referencing for within the text.