Writing the Poster Text

At chemistry conferences, poster sessions are nearly always more engaging than talks. As proof consider how jew people fall asleep while viewing a poster This is because the poster, by its very nature, is interactive, inviting people in to talk with you about your science. 

Congratulations If you are reading this chapter, you are likely preparing a poster for a scientific conference. This means that your conference abstract (chapter 8) was accepted and that you have been invited to give a poster presentation. In this chapter, we focus on the various sections of the poster and how to write them. In chapter 10, we highlight the visual attributes of the poster (layout, font size, color schemes, etc.). By the end of this chapter, you will be able to do the following  

As you work through the chapter, you will compose the text and graphics for your own poster. The Writing on Your Own tasks throughout this chapter guide you step by step as you do the following  

9F Add your poster titie, author iist, acknowiedgments, and references 

Browse through the poster in figure 9.1 and answer the following questions  

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Writing a conference abstract is often the first professional genre that novice writers tackle on their own, with little, if any, guidance from their research mentors. This chapter is intended to prepare you for the task by focusing on the text of the abstract. (If your abstract is accepted and results in a poster presentation, see chapters 9 and 10 for guidance in preparing the poster.)... 

Our discussion thus far might suggest that one writes the text of the poster first and then simply cuts and pastes it into the appropriate layout. In fact, the text evolves in an iterative way. One drafts the text first, capturing the key ideas that will be shared, but then the text is altered (numerous times) until it fits into the allotted space. Typically, you have less space than you first imagined, requiring that you reduce the number of lines and words in the text. The final texts presented in chapter 9 went through just such an iterative process. We wrote the text first, realized (all too often) that the text would not fit, and then revised it to make it more concise. 

The typical format is that of a scientific report (see Box 52.1), i.e. with the same headings, but with a considerably reduced content. Never be tempted to spend the minimum amount of time converting a piece of scientific writing into poster format. At scientific meetings, the least interesting posters are those where the author simply displays pages from a written communication (e.g. a journal article) on the poster board Keep references within the text to a minimum - interested parties can always ask you for further information. 

My] mentors graced me with a great deal of feedback on summarizingkey data/photos/text to use on the poster... Feedback on the presentation poster included creating a hierarchy of topics, arranging the display of photos, and writing a clear/concise introduction and conclusion. ... 

Reflect on what you have learned about writing text for a poster. Select one of the reflection tasks below and write a thoughtful and thorough response ... 

To conclude this section and chapter, we present three sample posters (figures 10.7-10.9) created from text developed in chapter 9 and design elements discussed in this chapter. (See also figure 9.1 in chapter 9 for a fourth sample poster.) Table 10.3 summarizes some of the design elements of these posters. Full-color versions of these posters are available at the Write Like a Chemist Web site. Together, we hope that these four posters stimulate ideas for preparing your own poster. 

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