Recently we looked at how to tackle your assignment. Now we are going to discuss how to prepare a poster for presentation of an assignment. Of course the following is an example for you to use in your class presentation and not quite suitable for research poster presentation, as it needs a little more depth to it. Insya Allah, I will prepare a post for that later on.
For now, lets focus on your assignment. After you have done all your research, reviews, analysis and discussions; you are now ready to create a poster for presentation. The poster must say ‘almost everything’ you want to say but in a clear and concise manner. Simplify the wordings, the design even the idea without missing the whole objective of the presentation. Sounds tough? Nope. Well… maybe…. a smidgen.
As we all know a poster has limited ‘real estate‘. What this means is that a poster has one surface of a specific size on which you have to build all your idea, review and discussion ‘properties‘. For an analogy, look at the image below.
Real estate analogy
Assume that you are given one of the areas shown for you to build your building or your house. Is you have Area 1, you can basically build a very large house, complete with an English garden and perhaps even an Olympic sized swimming pool. Space is not a an issue here.
On the other hand, if you get Area 3, your house will be narrow and perhaps a few stories to fit your needs. You have to get creative to put in a garden and a swimming pool. Or, easily, you can give up on them. In my opinion, go for creativity. Every time. You can put your garden on the rooftop, have an indoor swimming pool and a restaurant style kitchen all at different floors.
It is the same with posters. You have a limited space, so get creative to get your points across.
In the simple template given here, you will see to start with your title. A good title is a good to get attention and get people interested.
An introduction follows. Explain your aim and objective of the work.
Then you talk about your process of acquiring the data. This section is more fitted when the process helps give strength to your points and arguments. For some different objectives of presentation, this section may be included into other parts or left out totally.
Results are were you talk about your findings. You have done the research and analysis, even calculations and system development; now tell the audience the outcome. Remember to keep it concise but informational.
You can of course add images or graphs to help with your explanation and arguments. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Don’t forget some references and acknowledgments (if required). Lastly, you. Your poster must reflect you as a person, so the run of the mill template everyone uses should not be your choice. Don’t forget to put down your name (or group) and contacts.
I give you an example from the previously discussed Assignment 1.
A poster suggestion for Assignment 1
The heart of the matter is simple. If you did your research well, you will have good information for analysis. This will then turn into a good presentation. So always give it your best, and you will get the best results. Good luck!
