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Presentations
Assessed coursework can take the form of a poster presentation. This can be, for
example, an individual piece of research, a group project or as a visual essay where
you present the ideas of a particular topic. Whatever the content of your poster, a
poster is a visual presentation format and as with any other form of communication,
it should ‘tell a story’.
Checklist
Clarify what is expected from your poster
assignment
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Planning what you want to say
NOTE
Researchers are now asked by the Research Councils to write an abstract of their
research that could be understood by an intelligent 16 year old.
If you are reporting on work from your individual research project or a group project,
it is good to write a short section at the beginning (approximately 200 words) which
outline:
Why you did this research (gives a context)
How you did it (method)
Issues it raised (there may be some interesting things to solve on the
way)
Key findings/conclusion/recommendation
If you have not carried out any data-gathering research, you may be asked to
present a poster on a topic. This is something like a visual essay and you will also
need to start by jotting down a summary of your reading by:
Your poster must also have a very clear message. The information in your abstract
or introduction can be further developed in the boxes on your poster (see Designing
your Poster below).
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How we read a poster
A poster is not a jumble of things that can be read in any order (unless you are using
the poster as a form of art). Generally, we read a poster from the top left and work
our way down to the bottom right, as with any page we read. However, you can
break this rule if your route through the poster is clear and logical.
Remember readers will probably spend no more than about 5 minutes reading your
poster. In that time you have to convey your message through words and images
(see Identify your Message above).
Layout
A fairly transparent way to design your poster is to allocate text and picture boxes to
the size of paper you have. Your first decision is the size (A1?) and the orientation
(portrait or landscape?) of your poster.
Portrait Landscape
You need to play around with ideas on how you want to set out your text and images
and the kind of information you want to include. Remember to think of how your
information will flow, so it is obvious for the reader. Also, make sure your colour
scheme enables easy reading. Your colour scheme should enhance the message, not
dominate it. Pastel coloured backgrounds with dark text are easy on the eye. Dark
backgrounds with light text can look effective, but be careful it doesn’t become too
garish and difficult to read. Your topic should also give you a feel for the colour
scheme you want to adopt.
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Portrait: mixed column solutions
Image Image
or or
Image/ graph graph
graph
Image or
graph Future work
image
image
Contact details
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Adam Warren from the University of Southampton for the inspiration of
poster making through these diagrams.
Poster size
Paper sizes are standardised and the ISO (international standards office) paper sizes
we use are labelled as ‘A’ size papers and they range from A7 to A0; the smaller the
number the larger the paper size. The paper size we can most orientate ourselves to
is A4. Most student writing blocks are A4 size and it is the standard size for most
photocopiers and printers.
Some paper sizes are as follows and the usual size for a poster is A1.
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Some of the options you have are
Garamond is an example of a serif font. Serif fonts have letter faces with decorative
tops and bottoms to them.
Arial is an example of a san serif font. The letters don’t have the decorative parts and
they are often seen as a ‘cleaner’ font.
Many studies have shown that san serif and a wide letter look are easier to
read.
Times New Roman is a serif font but with a rather narrow letter look. This
generally rates poorly on readability tests. This is also now considered rather ‘old
fashioned’.
Garamond is also a serif font but the letters look a lot wider and this makes it easier
to read. If you prefer to use a serif font, this is probably better than Times.
Arial is a san serif font and the letters have a narrow look although an uncluttered letter
shape.
Verdana on the other hand is also a san serif font, but the letters have a
wider look which makes it easier to read.
Font size
It will depend on the typeface you use, but as a guide: the main title at
approximately 100 points, subheadings 50 points and the body of text 25 points.
Emphasis
You may want to emphasise key points Below are some possibilities.
However, only use two, at the most, in one poster. You can:
• Use bold, italics, underline or capitals
• Change the text colour
• Put text in a graphic or box
Alignment
The human eye can detect very quickly if text is not aligned and this can
make it look unprofessional. It is like wearing clothes that are not ironed.
Make sure your text does align and if you have a list ensure that all the first
words in your list start the same, i.e. not a mixture of capitals and lower case.
Line Length
Line lengths that are too long or too short interfere with the speed of reading.
A good average line-length to work with is approximately 39 characters long.
Graphics
Select graphics that enhance your text. Some stray image will look very odd.
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Checklist : Do’s and Don’ts
Hot Tip
Don’t use an unusual font as the printer may not recognise it.
Tools to use
You can prepare a poster by freehand drawing, writing text in a word processor,
printing and then cutting and pasting on to your paper or, through a software
package. Check with your tutor how they want you to prepare your poster. Part of
your assignment may in fact be the use of a particular piece of software.
A1
You can save your PowerPoint file then on to a CD or a memory stick so you can take
it to someone who can print it on to the size and weight of paper you want. Try and
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get an A3 (twice as big as A4) draft copy of your poster to check out layout and
colour scheme before printing on to a A1 size.
NOTE
If you have had no experience of PowerPoint, check with your institution as there are
very often ICT sessions or paper tutorials to get you started.
NOTE
If you are going to present your paper outside of your institution, you may need to
have it laminated (your institution should have facilities for this) and a cardboard roll
to transport it to your venue.
Although your poster sits there for all to read, you will probably be close by and be
asked some questions. You should practice explaining in a simple way what your
work was about, why you did it, any problems you had to overcome on the way, the
outcomes and conclusions. If your poster is an ‘ideas poster’ on a topic you need to
be able to explain the central message and issues of the topic presented in your
poster. Your poster may be the visual aid for an oral presentation in preference to
slides.
Reference: Price, G. & Maier P. (2007) Effective Study Skills: unlock your potential,
Pearson, London.
Pat Maier
Pat Maier