Creating Academic Posters

1. Creating Academic Posters Jenny Shanahan, Ph.D. Director of Undergraduate Research Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts

2. A poster is not a shortened research paper with a few images added. It is a distinct genre that calls for planning and presentation of ideas in ways very different from research essays.

3. The Purpose of posters A poster provides opportunities distinct from a paper: • One-on-one interaction with audience members • Visual guides to the topic and argument • Efficiency of time and space for multiple presentations • Re-articulation of ideas in new ways • Building additional skills: design, visual rhetoric, condensing an argument

4. Like any other text—in any genre — posters should be designed with audience, context, and purpose in mind.

5. Plan for Content What should a casual observer walk away with after a quick perusal? What does a more engaged reader need to understand to ask informed questions?

6. Plan for Content • Ensure that the author’s question and purpose are clear. • Make at least brief reference to the theory/approach. • Uniqueness or distinctiveness of the author’s insight/ argument should be evident.

7. Plan for Content Academic posters often include • Summary/Abstract or 2-3-sentence Thesis • Brief introductory/contextual info • Critical approach, process, or methods • Main argument, insight, or findings • Significance of the work • Bibliography • Key quotations from primary texts and/or the research paper • Photos, maps, illustrations, graphics

8. Plan for Design • PowerPoint slide (approx 42” x 36”) • ~3 columns (under title, presenter’s name and institution) • White or light background • Simple, coordinating colors for headings, text boxes, borders/lines, etc. • Align columns, text boxes, and borders (avoid chaos)

9. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Create Your Blank Poster Template • Open PowerPoint 2007 to create a new file • Proceed to the Design Tab and click Page Setup • Specify the Width and Height of your poster in inches. Note: Most academic posters are 42 inches in width, 36 inches in height.

10. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Remove existing formatting from the slide • Proceed to the Home Tab and click Layout • Select the Blank slide option

11. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Add a Title and other Text to your Poster • Proceed to the Insert Tab and click Text Box • The cursor will turn into crosshairs.  Click and drag your mouse to create a box where you wish to place your title (you can edit the size of the text box later, if necessary) • Type your title into the text box

12. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint • Repeat that process for adding other text boxes to your poster • To moveor alter the size/shape of your text box, place your cursor over a corner of the text box until it changes shape to look like either 2 or 4 black arrows. • When the cursor changes to 2 arrows, click and drag your mouse to change the size of your text box. • When the cursor changes to 4 arrows, click and drag your mouse to move the text box.

13. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Add Images • Proceed to the Insert Tab and click Picture • In the dialog box that appears, browse to the location of the image on your computer and click the Insert button

14. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Resize images in PowerPoint. To alter the size/shape of the image, place your cursor over a corner of the image until the cursor changes shape to look like either 2 or 4 black arrows. • When the cursor changes to 2 arrows, click and drag your mouse to change the size of your image. • When the cursor changes to 4 arrows, click and drag your mouse to move the image. You can also insert Charts or Tables by following the same steps and selecting the appropriate option from the Insert tab.

15. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Finish Up • When you are finished adding content, proofread all text carefully (small mistakes show up large on a poster!) and double-check the dimensions of the poster • Save the PowerPoint file to a removable storage device, such as a USB flash drive or a CD • Print and fill out the Poster Printing Form from the BSU print shop and have it signed by your professor • Bring the signed form and your PowerPoint file to the Print Shop at least one week before you need it, to have it printed by their staff

16. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Tips on proper poster design: • Do not use colored backgrounds. Your poster will print faster and look cleaner with a white background (and could cost you less money for printing) • Proofread your poster before submitting it to be printed. If possible, have a friend or colleague proofread it as well to minimize mistakes. You don't want to pay the Print Shop for multiple versions of your poster due to typos. • If you are using a photograph or logo, ensure that it is of high enough resolution so that it does not appear pixilated when viewing the poster at a zoom-rate of 100%

17. Creating a Poster in PowerPoint Tips on proper poster design (continued): • Use a logical sequence and structure (reading left to right, top to bottom) • Maintain consistency in fonts/styles, sizes of text, and width of text boxes • Leave some “white space” for visual appeal • Avoid “jagged edges” by outlining text boxes and/or fully justified text (aligned with left and right margins) • Break up large amounts of text with images (approximately 2/3 text,1/3 images) • Ensure readability at 5’ distance by using 32-70-point type

18. Example of a Humanities Poster

19. A Slip of Paper in a Black Walnut Box: An Examination of the Suffrage Debate in Beverly, Massachusetts 1913-1915 Sarah Fuller, Bridgewater State University Mary Boyden, Anti Suffrage Secretary and Treasurer Records , 1915 The Beverly Beacon: A Woman's Newspaper 11/1/1913 …the decline and fall of great nations and civilizations in our world history…three symptoms invariably attend the period of decay…the coming of women into public life and political prominence. This last factor…the fever of the diseased civilization. …she is not capable, has never shown herself and never will show herself capable of sustaining alike the life of the family with all its profound and absorbing demands, and the laborious technique of public life. 4th of July Celebration, 1920, Dodge Street in North Beverly, Helen Wales and Beverly Dunham (L to R) Thesis: By presenting never before analyzed primary source documents recently discovered in the archives of the local Beverly Historical Society in Beverly, MA, this study shines light on the local narrative, a missing piece of the state and national suffrage picture. Pro- and anti-suffrage women of Beverly, MA focused their attention on three major arguments: national economic changes and how these affected female responsibility within the home and family, whether or not female moral superiority had a role to play in politics, and finally, the social and political consequences that might result if women were allowed to vote. If the polls are such vile, disorderly places as is claimed, then it is time woman purified them by her presence. Surely the affairs of state need to be conducted with decency and sobriety. …the hand of woman/a frail hand it is true/But it can rock the cradle and drop the ballot too…And though against that fragile hand/Distrust and doubt are hurled./Still, the hand that rocks the cradle/ Should help to rule the world. Woman Suffrage is the opening wedge to Socialism and Feminism, propagandas antagonistic to everything held dear in Christian civilization.

20. Example of a Mathematics Poster

21. A Mathematical Model for the Effects of Plaque Aggregation on the Neuronal Network Thomas Howard with mentorDr. Irina Seceleanu Path of Signal through Neuronal Network without Plaque Deposits Simulating the Impact of Learning on Neuronal Degeneration due to Plaque Generating the Neuronal Network using a Fractal Tree Identifying Deteriorated Neuronal Connections due to Plaque • Deposit 5000 plaque granules. • Identify the closest edge in the fractal tree for each plaque granule and compute distance from plaque granule to edge. • If distance is less than 5 we record this in a counter and delete those edges whose counter exceeds a certain threshold value. Edges downstream are subsequently deleted from fractal tree. • The image below shows which neuronal pathways (in red) have been deteriorated by plaque granules deposited on the network. Each vertex is assigned a high or low number of receptors using a Bernoulli distribution with parameter p. The probability p decreases from 1 to 0.8 as we move downstream along the neuronal network. • The frequent use of the neuronal pathways in the human brain due to learning and memory exercises helps strengthen the neuronal connections which become more resistant to plaque degeneration. (c) (d) (b) (a) If a vertex has a high number of receptors, the signal passes through the neuron with probability 0.9. If the vertex has a low number of receptors, the signal only passes through the neuron with a probability of 0.3. Image in orange depicts the path of the signal in a healthy neuronal network. • We simulated these effects in our model by increasing the threshold value for the number of plaque granules in the vicinity of an edge required for deletion of that edge. • Table below shows the average of the number of neurons the signal reached for each of our three models having run the simulations a large number of times. (a) Program begins by plotting a horizontal line. (b) This line branches to form 3 new lines half the original length and extended straight out and perpendicular to it. (c) Each newly formed line branches in three more lines as in step (b). (d) The jynew iteration generates new line segments of length . (e) Horizontal and (f) vertical offset can be manipulated to realize different geometries. (g) The fractal tree is skewed using randomly generated coefficients to ensure a realistic representation of the neuronal network. 200 0 400 Depositing Plaque Granules using a non-homogeneous Markov Chain (g) (e) (f) -200 Path of Signal through Neuronal Network after Plaque Deposits (b) (c) (d) (a) Integrating Fractal Tree with Graph Theory Package (a) During the first iteration, a cell is randomly chosen with uniform probability from an grid where n was chosen to be 400. A high probability box is defined around the cells immediately adjacent to the first cell. (b) A cell is chosen from within the high probability box and a new box is positioned relative to the new cell. (c) Most cell deposits will occur in the high probability box as a result of our probability distribution. (d) In a minority of cases, cells are chosen from the complement of the previously defined high probability box. A new box is formed around this last deposit. Image in green shows the path of signal through the neuronal network that has been affected by the plaque deposits Image of Neuronal Network with Plaque Deposits Identify and label vertices and edges of the fractal tree, where each vertex represents a neuron. Similar to the neuronal network in the human brain, a signal travels in one direction. For ease of representation, we use a symmetric fractal tree. Probability distribution for the location of the next plaque granule in the matrix A: • given the current location SPA of the plaque, the next granule will be deposited in spacwith the following probabilities: • each cell in adjacent high probability box is picked with probability . • all other cells are picked uniformly with total probability of . Computer generated image using our mathematical model. Photograph, imaging from human hippocampus. Compare with image in orange in and note that the signal reached less neurons than in a healthy brain. We used this probability model to allow for realistic clustering of plaque granules. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts thoward@student.bridgew.edu

22. Outside resources http://www.posterpresentations.com/html/free_poster_templates.html http://www.postersession.com/templates.php http://abacus.bates.edu/~bpfohl/posters/#essentials