Poster Presentations

and Oral Presentations

Poster Presentations
 Poster presentations
• A poster is a way of visually conveying information about
your work.
• It is meant to be a taster or overview highlighting your
key points or findings, not an in-depth explanation and
discussion.
• Your poster should communicate your point(s) effectively
without you being there to explain it.
• The trickiest thing with poster presentations can be the
limited space and words you have.
• You will need to think critically about what it is important
to present.
 Planning a Poster
• Choose a narrow enough topic.
• Plan to present only highlights.
• Obtain and carefully follow instructions.
• Select images that present key messages
and attract viewers.
• Plan to include little text.
• Plan to make the poster understandable
on its own.
 Organizing a Poster
• Organize the poster logically (example:
Introduction, Methods, Results,
Conclusions).
• Place the content in about 3 to 5 vertical
columns.
• Include plenty of white space.
• In general, don’t include an abstract.
 Preparing a Poster: The Title
• Keep the title fairly short.
• Try to make the title attention-grabbing.
• Use large enough type (at least about 2.5
cm, or 1 inch, high).
• Do not use all capital letters.
Preparing a Poster: The Images
• Use images (photographs, flow charts,
graphs, etc) that both attract and inform.
• Keep the images simple, so they can be
quickly understood.
• Make the images large enough.
• Remember to label each image.
• Use color effectively.
 Preparing a Poster: The Text
• Keep the text brief.
• Make the type large enough to read easily.
• Where feasible, use bulleted or numbered
lists rather than paragraphs.
• If paragraphs are used, keep them short.
• Include your contact information.
• Proofread the text carefully.
 Brief Analysis
of One or More Posters
 Presenting a Poster
• Don’t be shy.
• Think ahead about questions you might be
asked.
• Perhaps ask some questions.
• Take advantage of the chance for
feedback.
• Take advantage of the chance to network.
 Presenting a Poster (cont)
• Have business cards available.
• Consider having handouts.
• Consider having people sign up for further
information.
• If you’ll write a paper about the work
presented, keep in mind comments and
questions from the poster session.
Oral Presentations
 Academic presentations
• Presenting your work allows you to demonstrate your
knowledge and familiarity of your subject.
• Presentations can vary from being formal, like a mini
lecture, to more informal, such as summarising a paper in a
tutorial.
• You may have a specialist audience made up of your peers,
lecturers or research practitioners or a wider audience at a
conference or event.
• Sometimes you will be asked questions.
• Academic presentations may be a talk with slides or a
poster presentation, and they may be assessed.
• Presentations may be individual or collaborative group work.
Preparing an Oral Presentation
• Obtain and carefully follow instructions.
• Include much less detail than in a paper to
publish.
• Stick to the main idea.
• Give the presentation a beginning, a
middle, and an end.
• If feasible, structure the presentation
largely as a story.
Preparing a Presentation (cont)
• Remember: People must be able to
understand what you say as you say it.
• Minimize use of abbreviations/acronyms.
• In general, prepare notes, not a full text.
Preparing Slides: Some Guidelines
• At most one slide per minute, on average
• One theme or idea per slide
• Simple and uncrowded
• Thus, usually no published graphs/tables
• Bullet points (not paragraphs) for most text
• Large enough lettering to read
 Compare this slide and the
previous one.
In general, do not average more than one
slide per minute. Limit each slide to one
theme or idea. Keep slides simple and
uncrowded. Thus, beware of using
published graphs and tables. In general,
use bullet points (not paragraphs) for text.
Make sure all lettering is large enough to
read.
 Rehearsing the Presentation
• Time the presentation carefully.
• Try to make the presentation slightly
shorter than the allotted time.
• Perhaps rehearse for others.
• Perhaps have others ask you questions.
 Coping with Stage Fright
• Note that a little nervousness can help you
perform well.
• Realize that people will attend to hear the
content, not to judge your speaking style.
• Prepare well, but do not over-prepare.
• Exercise a little.
• Beware of too much food, water, or
caffeine.
Coping with Stage Fright (cont)
• Hide physical signs of anxiety.
• Realize that a presentation need not be
perfect to be excellent.
 Giving the Presentation
• Arrive early.
• Make sure audiovisuals are working.
• Speak slowly enough.
• Speak clearly.
• Look at the audience.
• Show enthusiasm.
• Avoid distracting habits.
 Answering Questions
• Lay the groundwork for relevant questions
(for example, by stating in your talk some
items that people can ask about).
• Perhaps have the moderator or a
colleague to ask the first question.
• Briefly repeat each question.
• Keep answers brief.
 Answering Questions (cont)
• If you don’t know an answer, say so.
Perhaps
– offer to find out,
– suggest how to find out, or
– see if someone present has the answer.
• If a question seems irrelevant, offer to
answer it later, or move to a related item.
• If a question is hostile, answer politely and
briefly; perhaps offer to talk later.
 Answering Questions (cont)
• Make note of questions. Use them to help
shape future presentations and
publications about the work.
 GENERAL PRESENTATION GUIDELINES
• General Format
• All presentations (oral and poster) will generally contain the elements listed below.
The main difference between the two forms is that abstracts are often included in
a poster, but not in an oral presentation. For most professional conferences, you
will need to submit an abstract complete with title and authors as part of the
registration process. Most presentations will contain:
• Abstract: a summary of the project stating what you have set out to do, how you
have done it, the key results, and the main findings and conclusions.
• Title: tells others the name of the project, the people involved in the work and
their affiliation. The title should be large, descriptive, and concise.
• Introduction: should include clear statements about the problem that you are
trying to solve, the new ideas or items you are trying to discover or create, or the
proofs that you are trying to establish. You should note the background work that
has led up to the current status of your research or creative work in this area.
These should then lead to declarations of your specific project aims and
objectives.
 GENERAL PRESENTATION GUIDELINES

• Theory or Methods: explains the basis of the techniques that you are using or
the procedures that you have adopted in your study. You should also state and
justify any assumptions, so that your results can be viewed in the proper context.
• Results: shows illustrative examples of the main results/products of your work.
• Conclusions: discusses the main findings of your investigation and their value.
• Further Plans: contains your recommendations and thoughts about how the work
could be continued. What kinds of things could be done next? What are possible
long-term goals or outcomes?
• Acknowledgments: allows you to thank the organizations who might have given
you money for your work and/or the individuals who donated their time to help you
with your project.
 II. Planning
• A. Gathering Information

First, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the objective of the investigation?
• Has someone done the work before?
• How have I gone about the study?
• Why did I follow this particular route of investigation?
• What are the principles governing the techniques that I am using?
• What assumptions did I make, and what were my justifications?
• What problems did I encounter, and what results did I obtain?
• Have I solved the problem, and what have I discovered?
• Are my analyses sound?
 II. Planning
• B. Determining Content
• If you follow the above presentation format guidelines, then the content is more or
less determined for you. However, given that you have limited space or time, you
now have to decide between what is important and what is not essential. Your
decision should be based on at least two factors, namely:
• What are you trying to achieve by presenting? Is it to tell people what you
have done? Is it to inform people of a new discovery? Is it to convince people that
one idea or technique is better than another?
• Who will be attending the presentation? Are they technical people? What is the
level of their knowledge of your subject area? The answers to these questions will
define the content to include and set the tone of the presentation.
 II. Design
• A. Plan, plan, plan! (see part II above)
• B. Keep the material simple
• Make full use of your space (posters) or time (orals), but beware of information
overload, as the results can often be messy and confusing!
• Be concise
• Use only pertinent information to convey your message.
• Be selective when showing results. Present only those that illustrate the main
findings of the project; however, do keep other results handy so that you may refer
to them when asked.
 II. Design
• C. Use colors sparingly and with taste
• Use colors only to emphasize, differentiate, and to add interest. Do not use colors
just to impress!
• Choose background and foreground color combinations that have high contrast
and complement each other, i.e. black or dark blue on white or very light gray is
good. It is better to keep the background light, as people are used to it (for
example, newspapers and books).
• D. Do not use more than two font types
• Too many font types can be distracting, especially when they appear in the same
sentence.
• Titles and headings should appear larger than other text, but not too large. The
text on a poster should be legible from a distance, say from 5 to 10 feet. For oral
presentations, be sure that visuals will be easily seen from the back of the room.
 II. Design
• E. Do not use all UPPERCASE type in your posters (Acceptable for HEADINGS)
• This can make the material difficult to read. Just compare the two sentences
below: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF A LINE WHERE ALL THE CHARACTERS ARE
IN UPPER CASE? What do you think of this line, where only the first character of
the first word is in upper case?
• F. Do not use a different font to highlight important points
• This can cause the fluency and flow of your sentence to appear disrupted. For
example:
In this sentence, I want to emphasize the word 'emphasize'.
In this sentence, I want to emphasize the word 'emphasize'.

• Use underlined text, bold face, italics, or combinations to emphasize words and
phrases.
• If you use bold italicized print for emphasis, then underlining is not necessary!
 II. Design
• G. Equations
• Should be kept to a minimum. Present only the necessary and important
equations.
• Should be large enough to read clearly.
• Should be accompanied by nomenclature and definitions to explain the
significance of each variable.
 II. Design
• H. Pictures
• Graphs: Choose graph types that are appropriate for the information that you want to
display.
• Annotations should be large enough, and the lines of line-graphs should be thick enough so
that they may be viewed from a distance.
• Instead of using lines of different thickness, use contrasting colored lines or different line
styles to distinguish between different lines in multi-line graphs.
• Multi-line plots or plots with more than one variable should have a legend relating the plotted
variable to the color or style of the line.
• Diagrams and drawings: Should be labeled. Drawings and labels should be large and clear
enough so that they are still legible from a distance.
• Clipart: Should only be used if they add interest to the display and complement the subject
matter. Otherwise, all they do is distract attention from the focus of the presentation.
• Can also be 'dangerous,' as you may spend more time fiddling around with images and
choosing appropriate cartoons than concentrating on the content.
 II. Design
• I. Check your spelling
• Spelling mistakes give the impression that you have not put in the effort.
• J. Maintain a consistent style
• Inconsistent styles interrupt the fluency of your messages.
• Headings on the different pages of the poster should appear in the same position
on all pages.
• Graphs should be of the same size, especially if they are to be compared.
• If bold lettering is used for emphasis on one page, then do not use italics on
others.
• Position captions for graphs, drawings, and tables either at the top or at the
bottom of the figure.
 II. Design
• K. Arrangement/ ordering of presentation components should appear
smooth
• Remember that you are telling a story about what you have done and achieved.
As in report writing, the way you arrange the sections should follow the 'storyline.’
• Use a new page/slide to start off a new section.
• L. Review, review, review!!!
• Make draft versions of your poster sections or printouts of your slides and check
them for:
• Mistakes, legibility, inconsistencies in style, different layout arrangements
• Be critical of yourself and ask your friends, colleagues, or mentors for their honest,
critical opinions.
• Have fun showing off your good work!!!