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16.8: Poster

  • Page ID
    18876
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    A good poster communicates data concisely and effectively. This poster presents the same data as your final report. Unlike the final report, which is read carefully by a single reviewer, your audience is a larger number of individuals who “visit” your poster. Your poster audience will be more diverse than your class section and they may have limited familiarity with your project. (Friends and family are welcome!) The poster will have much less detail than your final report. You will be able to fill in the missing details during your conversations with your visitors. Since the visitors will spend only a few minutes at your poster, so you need to communicate your results efficiently. Always consider your audience as you prepare your poster. Your visitors may provide helpful ideas and suggestions for your final report.

    Follow these general guidelines:

    • Posters are 30” wide and 40” high. Each is mounted on an easel. Your material needs to fit within these boundaries.
    • The poster presents data and background material in a series of panels. Each panel is mounted separately on the poster board with push pins. Panels can be mounted in either landscape or portrait orientation. You may group several panels together. Each panel or group of panels needs to have a title in BOLD font.
    • Use large font sizes so that a viewer can read the text from a distance of 1-2 feet. Use BOLD fonts for titles. (Specific suggestions for font sizes are included below.)
    • Panels with figures or tables should have a legend. The legend title should be larger or emphasized to set it aside from the text of the legend.
    • Prepare the panels in a program(s) of your choice. Print the panels on regular letter paper. Include color if you wish, but this is optional.

    Panels to include on your poster:

    1. Title - This panel includes the title and the names of the authors in a smaller font. The title summarizes the content of your poster. The title MUST include the name of your gene, e.g. MET3. A font size of 48 pt or more for the title and a font size of 28-32 points for the authors’ names are recommended.

    2. Abstract - The title of this panel is “Abstract”. “Abstract” should be in a larger and bolder font (24-28 pt) than the text (18-20 pt) of your abstract.

    3. Background - Your visitors will not be as familiar with your project as you are. It would be a good idea to provide some information about the methionine biosynthetic pathway, as well as other information on your gene that you consider relevant.

    4. Data panels - Use as many panels as you need to tell your story! Each data panel needs a title, figure or table, and legend. The title of a data panel often summarizes the content, e.g. “Plasmid identification using restriction digestion.” Font sizes decrease as you move through the panel. The title of the figure legend should be smaller (18-20 pt) than the font size of the panel title (24-28pt).

    5. Conclusion panel - Include a short list of conclusions from your work.

    7. References - Use “References” or “Literature cited” as the title of this panel. List the references in FEMS Yeast Research format.

    A mockup of a potential poster is shown below.

    Organization is critical to an effective poster!

    Be creative! Make your poster visually appealing!


    16.8: Poster is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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