University Writing Center

Research posters are often used at conferences in place of more formal presentations. Typically, they are displayed in a large room, and presenters stand near them to give brief speeches or answer questions. Unlike most forms of presentations, the audience decides how much of the poster they want to read, if any. To keep an audience’s attention, posters must be intriguing and straightforward.

Audience

The audience will largely determine the poster’s content and style. Consider whether your poster is meant to complement your speech or if it will be standing alone. If your poster will be presented in front of people familiar with your topic, it is acceptable to use specialized terms, jargon, and a detailed depiction of your results. However, posters written for a more general audience should avoid jargon and stress results and application over methods and data analysis.

If your poster will be on display among many others, your audience will be somewhat distracted.  It  must be easy to comprehend quickly. A glance should reveal the research you’ve conducted and why. The key is an effective title. Your title should be as clear as possible and include the issue and your approach to research. If the audience is more general, a catchy title can be effective, as in Example 2, below.

Ex. 1 The Effect of Gender on Student Writers’ Perceptions of Peer Tutor Competency
Ex. 2 I Can’t Work with Women: Gender & Student Writers’ Perceptions of Peer Tutor Competency
Ex. 3 Impact of Animal Disease-Related Trade Disruption on the US Beef Market

The title should be the most prominent aspect of the poster and should be legible from a distance.

Organization

Your poster should have a natural and obvious organization that flows easily. Usually, the best organization for research topics is IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion). Each section should be approximately 200 words or fewer.

Introduction: Interest your reader in your topic and present a clear hypothesis. Placing your research in context of current scientific literature or problems can help the audience see its significance. Explain the research problem you are investigating and why it is significant. If necessary, include background information and key terms. Avoid wordiness—you will lose the reader’s interest with long explanations. Include a graphic that connects to your hypothesis and illustrates your work’s focus.

Methods: Briefly describe methods and materials used in your research: often, these are better communicated through illustrations and photographs. Labeled drawings or photos can display your steps, and flow charts can show experimental procedures. You should also include your methods of statistical analyses and their effectiveness in testing your hypothesis.

Example of a research method step:

 

Intact seeds were selected from 25 cowpea varieties and a reference cowpea sample.

Results: This is the most important, and usually the longest, section of your poster. Describe your results in quantitative and qualitative terms and directly state whether your hypothesis was confirmed. Then describe your data analysis and its relation to your hypothesis. Use as many visual tools as possible, such as tables, legends, graphs, and images, to illustrate your results.

Discussion: Discuss the conclusions of your research.  First, briefly reiterate your hypothesis and results without sounding redundant. Clearly and quickly state whether your hypothesis was supported, and why your findings are relevant and interesting. You can also describe alternative research methods, possibilities for future studies, or possible applications for your findings.

Make sure your poster includes a references section, an acknowledgement section, and a way for the reader to find out more information (i.e. your email address or a website).

Designing Your Poster

Your poster’s layout should be easy to follow and visually appealing. Many students use Microsoft PowerPoint to design their posters (dimensions can be adjusted under design>page setup) because content can be easily formatted and re-arranged. Before you design your poster, determine the dimensions you are allowed to work with and the type of material you will be using. Some posters are split into separate parts and then assembled for presentation; others are printed directly onto a poster.

Layout

Your poster should present the content in logical order (remember, IMRaD). People read from left to right and top to bottom, so your content and the steps of your experiment must be organized as such. The title should be the most prominent aspect of the poster. The arrangement of graphics and content (its composition) must keep the viewers’ attention and lead them through the content visually.

The alignment of content on the poster to the far left leads the viewer’s eyes to the center of the poster. The poster to the immediate left demonstrates that major graphics should be central to the viewer’s eye to immediately grab attentION.

The following visual explains how graphics can affect the composition of your poster:

Studying the Effects of Magnetism (GOOD)

Studying the Effects of Magnetism (BAD)

Make sure your poster looks as neat as possible by aligning your margins and spacing the content evenly. If you barely have any outer margins, you have too much content. Small margins make your poster look overcrowded, sloppy, and unprofessional. Blank space, or “white space,” makes your poster look professional and approachable.

Text

The text should be large and easy to read, as people may be looking at the poster from across a crowded room. (Everything should be legible from three feet away.)  If you cannot make your text large enough without running out of space, chances are you need to edit. If you have large chunks of text, break them up into manageable bits. Always align text to the left rather than centering it unless it’s for a very good reason. Never use cutesy or decorative fonts like Comic Sans MS, Ravie, Chiller, or Gigi. Fonts should be uniform throughout the poster. You can use different fonts, but different categories of text (such as sub-headings) should be in the same style.

Color

Color can be a great ally when adding interest to your poster, but it can also make your poster look unprofessional. Only use bright colors when emphasizing a point or relaying a meaning (such as green for ecology). Make sure the colors fit within the same color scheme. Many websites make available premade color palates. The color of your content (especially the text) and your background should be high contrast (think black v. white) for maximum visibility.

Graphics

Graphics are essential to designing a successful research poster. They entice readers to look closer, while orienting them to the topic or content. With any type of graphic, it is important that the quality of the image be high enough to print without becoming pixilated (fuzzy). Many images copied from websites, especially small images, will print pixilated and cause your poster to look unprofessional. (You also run the risk of copyright infringement.) Using your own photographs and illustrations whenever possible will allow you to control the quality of your images. Stock photo websites, such as istockphoto.com or morguefile.com, offer hundreds of high quality photo options for your use. Provide the source for any photos you have not purchased or taken yourself.

 

Photographs are a great way to add color and texture to your poster. When using photographs, add a thin, hardly noticeable outline to the image to create a cleaner look (as at right). You may also consider using an entire photograph as your poster’s background (but make sure your content is legible). Your graphics should always connect to your content: do not throw in random pictures in an attempt to make your poster more interesting.

Other Tips

To make your poster readable, keep it concise. Use bullet points sparingly and make sure your lists are parallel. Parallel lists begin each item with the same part of speech (all verbs, for example).

Ex. Parallel: test hypothesis, collect data, write conclusion
Ex. Non-Parallel: test hypothesis, data is collected, you write the conclusion

Always remember:

• Write “data are,” NOT “data is,” because “data” is a plural noun.
• Do not use acronyms or shorthand that those outside your discipline won’t understand.
• See if a friend outside of your discipline can understand your poster.
• Use Italics instead of underlining to make your poster look cleaner.
• Make sure there are no mistakes or grammatical errors.
• Avoid loose papers or handwritten text.
• Be creative with your poster: If your research has to do with smell, include a sample for your audience to test. Create 3-D models to better demonstrate your research or attach a short video that connects to your topic.

For real life examples: Colin Purrington has written an excellent online resource for creating research posters: www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm.

Penn State University has free poster templates online: www.writing.engr.psu.edu/posters.html.

References

Alfano, Christine L. and Alyssa J. O’Brien. Envision: Persuasive Writing in a Visual World. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.

Day, Robert A. and Barbara Gastrel. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006.

Goldbort, Robert. Writing for Science. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Purrington, Colin. Advice on Designing Scientific Posters. 24 July 2009. 5 August 2009 <http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm>.