Biological Sciences

Annual Student Research Symposium

Poster Presentation Guidelines

The student research symposium is a venue for our graduate and undergraduate students to present their research to the department and Western Illinois University. It will be held on Friday, April 11, 2008. Honor's undergraduate students, undergraduate students who are doing or have done independent studies, graduate students with research proposals to present, and graduate students with data for their research projects will all be presenting oral presentations or posters. These are the suggested guidelines for preparing your poster presentation, written by Dr. Shawn Meagher.

Tips for Successful Poster Presentations

The most common mistakes made in poster construction are (1) using type that is too small, and (2) including too much information. To make a poster that is easy to read and digest, use the following suggestions.

Poster Size: Posters should be 1.2m x 1.2m (4 x 4 feet) or smaller.

Preparation: Plan ahead, posters are very labor intensive. Start designing (small layout sketches) and constructing early.

Section Suggested Font Size: Title 120 pt (~ 3cm high)

Section headings: 48 pt (~ 2cm high) Text 24 pt (~ 1cm high)

Text quantity:

Figures: Use 4-6 simple self-contained images. Figure legends are optional. Keep descriptive text brief and near the figures.

Color: Subdued colors won't overwhelm viewers. Try slightly different colors to group sections (Introduction and Methods, Results, Conclusion and Acknowledgments [if you have them]).

Layout: Use a simple vertical (top to bottom) arrangement so that the poster can easily be scanned from left to right (arrows in figure below). Group related information (color can make this more obvious).