Writing Research Abstracts 101
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Ohio State’s Center for Knowledge Management http://ckm.osu.edu/print/5034.cfm

Poster Primer
http://ugresearch.adm.ohio-state.edu/PosterPrimer.html

Preparing a Poster Presentation
http://www.webguru.neu.edu/communicating/poster/

webGURU guide to research for undergraduates
http://www.webguru.neu.edu/communicating/poster/

Illinois Junior Science and Humanities Symposium – Guidelines for…Student Research
http://www.science.siu.edu/ijshs/pdf/ijshs.pdf

American Society of Plant Biologists
http://www.aspb.org/education/poster.cfm

The Poster Site, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden
http://www.medsci.uu.se/occmed/poster/

Kansas University Medical Center
http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Poster_Presentations/PstrStart.html

George Mason University
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/writingcenter/ppt/

American College of Physicians
http://www.acponline.org/srf/abstracts/pos_pres.htm

Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium
http://www.waspacegrant.org/posterdesign.html

Swarthmore College
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm

Where can I get my poster printed, and how much will it cost?

Denman participants may be eligible for partial reimbursement for poster costs if their department or some other source is not able to cover the costs. These students may be eligible to receive up to a $25 reimbursement toward these costs from the Honors & Scholars Center, whether or not they are an Honors & Scholars student. For more information, contact your advisor or Vicki Pitstick at 292-1794 or denmanforum@osu.edu .

Check with your department, as many campus departments, schools and colleges have poster-printing capabilities, which may save considerable money on printing costs. Be advised, however, that many departments with such equipment will only print posters for students within that department or college/school.

On-campus options for printing posters include:

Thompson Library (costs up to $7.25 to print a poster) OIT Computer Lab, room 160. Color or b/w, up to $7.35/poster. Max poster size is 36”x48.” Primarily a self-serve operation; staff may be on hand for assistance. Find info on specs and cost-per-size breakdown at http://nextweb.lib.ohio-state.edu/sites/mps/plotter/ 

Center for Knowledge Management, 410 Prior Health Sciences Library, 376 W. 10th Ave. 292-7770. Roughly $120 to print a poster. For further pricing information, see: http://ckm.osu.edu/print/5037.cfm

UniPrint at Tuttle Park Place, 2055 Millikin Way (in the Tuttle Park Place Garage); 292-2219. $8/square foot. Student must provide poster set-up. http://uniprint.osu.edu/default.aspx

Off-campus options:

Kinko’s, $7/square foot. Best to convert poster to PDF prior to taking it to Kinko’s. Various locations. Allow 24 to 48 hours for project completion upon dropping it off at Kinko’s. For locations and contact information, see http://www.fedex.com/us/officeprint/main/

PosterXpress' Premium poster prints cost $7.00 per square foot. PowerPoint
files are OK or send a pdf file and save. The web sites have useful tips,
design considerations and templates. Upload files directly to their web
site: http://posterxpress.com/index.php

Software programs that students have used for making a poster:
Microsoft PowerPoint
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
R – free software for statistical computing and graphics (http://www.r-project.org/)

Wisdom from students who have been through the process:

• Give yourself plenty of time to create a poster, from start to final printing. Think about how you want your poster to look, and allow ample time to proofread, edit and revise.
• Start at least two months before your deadline, and set your own due at least a week before the presentation.
• Double check everything.
• Make the results the focal point of your presentation.
• Keep text to a minimum, and use a large font (usually 24- to 36-point.)
• Use graphs and pictures to encourage questions.
• Know your methodology and data backwards and forwards. No one will believe anything you say if they doubt your data.
• If you know someone who has already created a research poster, ask for their file to get you started. Poking around in their file can give you good ideas for your poster.
• Striking a balance between too much text and too many images is difficult. Concentrate on the main points you want the viewer to walk away with. Scrutinize your graphs and images. Don’t intimidate the viewer with jargon and complicated graphics. You want your audience to learn and appreciate the material without making them feel like they also need two years of immersion in the data to really understand it all.
• Save your poster as a PDF before printing and double check that all of your alignments are correct. Sometimes the printer can shift alignments slightly and there is nothing worse than spending a lot of time and money on a poster to find out that it printed a differently than you planned.
• Put a thin black border around all of your pictures otherwise the edges look fuzzy.
• Remember people who are color blind when making a presentation. Using different hues isn't enough; you must use different patterns and contrasts in brightness to ensure everyone can understand your graphs and tables.
• Ask the printer for a full-size proof before printing your final version. A full-size draft is great for finding mistakes and to practice presenting. Also, practice a presentation for those in your field and to those who only have a basic knowledge of your research topic.
• Do not print your poster at the last minute.