Better Presentations: avoiding last year’s pitfalls Dr Verina Waights Lead Judge - OU Poster Competition

2 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

3 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

4 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?

5 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

6 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

7 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

8 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