Poster Presentation
Posters are a key component of communicating your thought plans and an important element in a successful scientific career. Posters, while delivering the same high-quality science, offer a different medium from either oral presentations and should be treated accordingly. Posters should be considered a snapshot of your work intended to engage colleagues in a dialogue about the work, or, if you are not present, to be a summary that will encourage the reader to want to learn more. Many a lifelong collaboration has begun in front of a poster board. Here are ten simple rules for maximizing the return on the time-consuming process of preparing and presenting an effective poster.
Tips To Design a Good Poster
Define the Purpose The purpose will vary depending on the status and nature of the work being presented, as well as the intent. Some posters are designed to be used again and again; for example, those making conference attendees aware of a shared resource. Others will likely be used once at a conference and then be relegated to the wall in the laboratory.
Before you start preparing the poster, ask yourself the following questions: What do you want the person passing by your poster to do? Engage in a discussion about the content? Learn enough to go off and want to try something for Them? Want to collaborate? Neither the above nor none of same…otherwise something?
The Title Is Important The title is a good way to sell your work. It may be the only thing the conference attendants before they reach your poster. The title should make them want to come and visit. Your poster might pose a decisive question, define the scope of the study, or hint at a new finding. Above all, the title should be short and comprehensible to a broad audience. The title is your equivalent of a newspaper headline—short, sharp, and compelling.
Poster Acceptance Means Nothing Do not take the acceptance of a poster as an endorsement of your work. Conferences need attendees to be financially viable. Many attendees who are there on grants cannot justify attending a conference unless they present. There are a small number of speaking slots compared with attendees. How to solve the dilemma? Enter posters; this way everyone can present. In other words, your poster has not been endorsed, just accepted. To get endorsement from your peers, do good science and present it well on the poster.
Many of the Rules for Writing a Good Paper Apply to Posters Too. Identify your audience and provide the appropriate scope and depth of content. If the conference Includes non specialists, cater to them. Just as the abstract of a paper needs to be a succinct summary of the motivation, hypothesis to be tested, major results, and conclusions, so does your poster.
Good Posters Have Unique Features Not Pertinent to Papers The amount of material presented in a paper far outweighs what is presented on a poster. A poster requires you to distill the work, yet not lose the message or the logical flow. Posters need to be viewed from a distance, but can take advantage of your presence. Posters can be used as a distribution medium for copies of associated papers, supplementary information, and other handouts. Posters allow you to be more speculative.
How to Write A Research Project Proposal
A research proposal is a document written by a researcher that provides a detailed description of the proposed program. It is like an outline of the entire research process that gives a reader a summary of the information discussed in a project. Preparation of research proposal is needed because it facilitates the smooth sailing of the various research operations, thereby making research as efficient as possible yielding maximal information with minimal expenditure of effort, time and money. In fact, the research proposal is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data. As such the proposal includes an outline of what the researcher will do from writing the hypothesis and its operational implications to the final analysis of data.
More explicitly, the research proposal concentrates on the following issues-
- What is the study about?
- Why is the study being made?
- Where will the study be carried out?
- What type of data is required?
- Where can be the required data found?
- What periods of time will the study include?
- What will be the sample design?
- What techniques of data collection will be used?
- How will the data be analyzed?
- In what style will the report be prepared?
These questions will be answered in different ways and receive different emphases depending on the nature of the proposed project and on the agency to which the proposal is beingsubmitted.Mostagenciesprovidedetailedinstructionsorguidelinesconcerningthe preparation of proposals (and, in some cases, forms on which proposals are to be typed); obviously, such guidelines should be studied carefully before you begin writing the draft. Most proposals are between ten and fifteen pages in length. The proposal should be no longer than 1500 words (not including references).
Techniques of Preparing Research Proposal
A good place to begin preparing research proposal is to ask yourself a series of questions-
- What do I want to study, and why?
- How is it significant within the subject areas covered in my desire?
- What problems will it help solve?
- How does it build upon [and hopefully go beyond] research already conducted on my topic?
- What exactly should I plan to do, and can I get it done in the time available?
In the end, your research proposal should document your knowledge of the topic and highlight Techniques of Preparing Research Proposal. A good place to begin preparing research proposal is to ask yourself a series of questions-
- What do I want to study, and why?
- How is it significant within the subject areas covered in my desire?
- What problems will it help solve?
- How does it build upon [and hopefully go beyond] research already conducted on my topic?
- What exactly should I plan to do, and can I get it done in the time available?
1. Title of the Research: After identifying a research problem, a suitable title of the research should be given. The research title should be –
- Specific, direct, concise, meaningful and easily understandable;
- notmore than one or two lines;
- mustaccuratelyrepresenttheobjectiveandindicatethepurposeofthestudy.
2. Statement of the Problem: To conduct a research, the researcher first chooses the general area of his/her interest from among the wide array of general areas that exist in his/her parent discipline. However, with only the general area in hand researcher (she/he) does not know what specific information researcher (she/he) needs to collect since he/she does not have any specific question to answer. This is why researcher (she/he) needs to formulate a specific problem from within the chosen general area to make the whole exercise a worthwhile scientific inquiry. The specific issues that need to be covered under the statement of the problem are mentioned as follows-
- Back ground information of the issue with literature review.
- Indication of the unexplored character of the issue or knowledge gap or research question.
- Reasons for undertaking the study.
3. Formulation of Hypothesis: Hypothesis is an assumption regarding the value or relationship of variables that needs to be tested. It provides the basis for investigation and ensures the proper direction in which the study should proceed. It helps one to arrive at appropriate conclusions, suggestions and observations. Hypothesis should be clear, precise and specific.
4. Objectives of Research: Objectives of research should be formulated clearly and simply which can be understood easily. It must be formulated on the basis of problem and hypothesis (if any) indicating what specific problem to be investigated. The number of objectives depends on the nature of research. But it should not be too many.
5. Literature Review: A review of existing literature on the proposed research should be done by the researcher to find out the past research study done on the subject. It will help in identifying what was done on the subject and the knowledge about the same. It will help to frame our proposals of literature review. Here are the three C’s of writing a literature review –
- i. Cite: keep the primary focus on the literature pertinent to your research problem.
- ii. Compare various arguments, theories, methodologies and findings expressed in the literature: what do the authors agree on? Who applies similar approaches to analyzing the research problems?
- iii. Connect the literature to your own area of research and investigation: how does your own work draw upon, depart from, or synthesize what has been said in the literature?
6. Justification: In this section the researcher needs to justify the importance of the study. This section covers the following issues-
- Relevance and importance of the study.
- Practical application of the study output.
- How the new knowledge gained through the study will contribute to the solution of practical problems?
- How the study findings will be useful in policy formulation?
7. Scope of the Study: Under this section the researcher needs to identify the indicators, variables and key questions based on research objectives. For clear understanding these issues can be presented in a matrix form. Moreover, study locations and limitations with reasons need to be mentioned in this section.
8. Research Methods: Methods of a research depend on the hypothesis/hypotheses and objectives of the research project. Generally, the following issues are covered under research methods.
- Where the study will be conducted and how the study location has been selected?
- What population will be covered?
- Will it be a complete enumeration or ample survey or a case study?
- If it is a sample survey, what will be the sample size and how it has be undetermined?
- What sampling technique will be followed to select sample units or sample respondents?
- What will be the sources of information?
- What methods and tools will be used in collecting information?
- How the quality of data will be ensured?
- How data will be processed?
- How data will be analyzed and what statistical tools will be used?