Better Presentations:
avoiding last year’s
pitfalls Dr Verina Waights
Lead Judge - OU Poster Competition
Aims
• To build on feedback given to students following last year’s poster
competition
•
to consider the research element of posters rather than their design
•
to prepare for oral presentation of your poster
2
Initial planning
Target audience
general interest
Poster
Your project title, your name and the OU logo must be clearly visible
Don’t overcrowd and ensure it can be read from a distance
Poster should ‘stand alone’
present your research without needing further explanation
tell a discrete story in the space available (be selective!)
highlight your contribution to a team project
3
Poster content 1
Present your research in a logical manner
Background, aims, methods, results, conclusions
Don’t need to use these exact headings but need to state what you
did, how you did it, who or what was involved, how the data was
analysed, what results you obtained, what your conclusions are
Give sound academic argument for your research
What are you wanting to find out?
Why is this research interesting/important?
What contribution to knowledge have you made, who will benefit
from your findings?
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Poster content 2
Only include relevant material
Aims of the research described in poster
Results that shed light on aims of this particular piece of research
Conclusions
Should link back to initial aims of research
Show relevance of project
End poster with a clear take-home message
5
Tips
Explain terminology
Keep text to a minimum
Use diagrams to aid understanding (refer to them in the text)
Ask a friend to read your poster
Proof read an A4 version
Make an IMPACT!
Don’t
Assume audience are familiar with your project/field
Use acronyms
Give so little information that the point of the research is lost
6
Presenting your poster
Introduce yourself and be enthusiastic!
Allow people to read your poster by themselves if they wish
Use your poster to illustrate the key points of your presentation
• Don’t just read it out verbatim
• Check your audience are following your reasoning
• Don’t use specialist terminology without giving its meaning
Prepare for questions
• Rehearse answering possible questions that could be posed by
people either familiar and unfamiliar with your field
7
Activity (to try later)
Find another student who is unfamiliar with your project
You have three minutes to describe the research you intend to present
in your poster (this can be tricky as you won’t have your poster to help
you)
Once you have finished your audience can ask three or four questions
about your research
Your audience then tells you what they have learned about your
research. Could they understand what your project was about and why
you were doing it? Did they need you to clarify anything?
If the other student would like to try this for themselves you can act as
the audience for them
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