400 word Reflection
Generally, oral presentations are formal occasions, but formal does not need to be boring. Listeners will often, but not always, have some interest in your topic, depending on the type of event where you would be speaking. You should not assume they know all of the terms specific to your work, and you should, therefore, define those terms. You should also not assume that their interest is so high that you need to do nothing special to maintain it. Look at the audience when you talk, try to connect to these people, and show them that you did something worthwhile.
A few jokes would not go amiss, though they should not obscure the content. Ideally, you will know your audience and be able to tailor your presentation’s difficulty and humor levels to them. Finally, it bears repeating: try not to read your presentation, either from slides or from notes. Practice!
Undergraduate students participating in research conferences are both more likely to be more comfortable presenting their work in a poster session than in a paper session and more likely to be asked to do so. Likewise, though many college professors assign oral presentations, some may hold classroom poster sessions instead. Such sessions may involve science fair style posters such as those pictured in Figure 3.28, but we are going to focus our attention on a higher standard of conference posters.
Though different scientific meetings may require different sizes for posters and may have specific rules, the basic requirements tend to be the same. Your poster should follow the basic structure of the APA style paper, though you may sometimes not include the abstract and references. The abstract is not essential because your poster will already have to summarize your research, though many conferences require it anyway. References, on the other hand, sometimes do not fit due to the lack of space, but you should maximize the efforts to include them, or at least have a printout of your references available for interested parties.
Because posters are presented to roaming audiences, all of the text on your poster should be large enough to be seen from a distance. Therefore, minimum font size should be 20 points, though 24 may be better if the information still fits. Serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Garamond are more readable than sans-serif fonts such as Calibri. For the same reason, posters include little writing in paragraph format, or even in complete sentences. Bullet points are quicker and easier to follow than paragraphs, and they take up less space. Similarly, all titles and headings should be large and clear to be identifiable from a few steps away.
Posters are often titled differently than their corresponding research papers in the interest of attracting audience attention. For the same purpose, instead of following the APA style paper introduction precisely, the poster authors may abbreviate the introduction and focus on its essential elements. The research question or hypothesis may be highlighted or otherwise emphasized. Images that may not be suitable to include in the formal manuscript can be used to illustrate the ideas and to attract interest.
Methods of the study need to be described accurately, but perhaps with less detail than you would use in a paper. If possible, you should use graphics to illustrate the procedures and the materials used in the research. Likewise, charts and tables are the best way to communicate results on a poster. In text, you may wish to combine results and discussion to make things easier to track. Make your conclusions very prominent, however, so that visitors can identify them at a glance.
Poster sessions at conferences and other scientific meetings tend to be boisterous affairs, with people milling about the display stands, and refreshments (which sometimes include alcoholic beverages) available. They are not only an opportunity to present your own work but also a good way to connect with others who are doing research in your area of interest. You should be able to look at other posters and to talk to the presenters. If you are presenting a poster, you will be assigned a time frame and a location (usually a number) for your poster. You should arrive a little early to set up, but be prepared in case the prior presenter’s poster may still be up on your assigned display board. Be ready with push pins, paper, and pen (to take notes or contact information of interested visitors) and handouts of your poster to give away. You may also want to prepare your business cards and have them available in an envelope pinned to the board.
How to Present Your Poster
During a poster session, you will be expected to remain by your poster and be available to discuss it with attendees who may stop by. Some visitors will take time to read the poster on their own, and they may or may not ask you questions or offer comments about it. You need to be prepared to provide information that did not make it onto the poster itself or to entertain alternative explanations of your findings. You are not expected to have answers to all questions, but you are expected to be attentive to them. This may be how you will get your next research idea, or at least some good feedback on your work prior to publication.
Conversely, other visitors may want to hear a brief (a minute or two) summary of your work instead of reading the poster themselves. You should have one prepared and practiced, but not rigidly memorized. It is quite likely that your visitor may interrupt you to ask questions, or request different relevant information than what you prepared. That is part of the fun of poster sessions – you do not truly know what may happen. Therefore, know your project really well and be ready for a bit of an adventure, though you may want to hold off on the fun beverages until after your session. And wear comfortable shoes!