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Using PowerPoint for posters

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My poster
Introduction Poster presentations are a common academic format and are a regular feature at academic conferences. Whilst, as an undergraduate, it is unlikely that you will be presenting a poster at a conference, the poster format is sometimes used as a form of assessment for undergraduate courses. This chapter will explain the purpose of academic posters and suggest seven key steps for creating them effectively. The context of poster presentations If posters are used as a form of assessment at undergraduate level then they have a different purpose to that of an academic conference. However, it is helpful to understand the context from which they come in order to know what they are supposed to achieve. Academic conferences are important opportunities for researchers to present their work, allowing them to: publicise their findings; promote discussion; create opportunities for collaboration with other researchers. Clearly, not everyone at a conference will be able to present their research orally, so poster presentations are often used to allow lots of people to present their research at once. Typically, posters are size A1 (eight times bigger than A4) or A0 (16 times bigger than A4) and are attached to display boards arranged throughout an open plan room or conference hall. Time will be allocated in the conference schedule for delegates to view the posters, usually with opportunities to discuss the work with the presenter. A poster presentation is more limited than an oral presentation in terms of the amount of information that can be communicated, therefore posters should be designed to summarise the important elements and promote discussion. Depending on how large the conference is and how well it is organised, delegates may have brief details of posters on display at the conference in advance, including the title of the poster and possibly an abstract. If these details are available then delegates might scan the list of posters on display to identify those they wish to view. Alternatively (or additionally), delegates may simply browse the posters themselves and view those which catch their eye. Either way, the posters that are viewed the most will be those that stand out from the crowd in some manner. Seven key steps to creating your poster Now that we have explained the context of academic posters we need to identify how to create them effectively. There are seven key steps involved in the process; the first two relate to the content of the poster, the next four are about design issues, and the final one is about ensuring that it is free from errors. This may seem a little unbalanced but we have dealt a lot already in this book with writing for bioscience, and it is usually the design aspects, rather than the content aspects, where students need the most guidance. The seven steps, therefore, are: 1. get the academic content right; 2. cut the text down to between 300 and 500 words; 3. format the type; 4. prepare your images; 5. design the layout; 6. choose a colour scheme; 7. check it very carefully.

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