Summer Undergraduate Research Program - Fred Hutchinson ...

Presenting your Poster
The Basics
Presenting a poster involves a lot of talking . Viewers are often
more interested in hearing you explain the research
as opposed to reading the content of your poster
themselves. You should be able to explain the research and
any relevant details in five minutes or less to anyone who stops
by .
Remember that you are the expert and that people with more
experience will be asking questions, not to test you, but out of
genuine interest . It is important to know the project so that you
can field questions without losing confidence. Experienced poster
presenters know their work inside and out, forward and backward .
Be aware that you will be approached by experts in your field
as well as those that are just curious about the research . To
accommodate both the expert and the layman, a good rule of
thumb is to prepare two talks . You should prepare a twominute
summary for people who seem interested in your
research, as well as a more detailed version . Start with the short presentation and expand if the viewer(s)
starts asking questions. It’s very important that you be able to explain every part of your data, figures,
graphs, research, or results .
Deliver your message quickly!
The best presentations make just one point, loudly and clearly . You might have tested two or three
closely related hypotheses, but they should all revolve around the same single point . To deliver just one
point, do your best to develop a summary of your work that you can state in 25 words or less .
Once you know the central message, you need to decide what supporting information to present . The best
presentations generally follow the guidelines of a published paper, and include the following sections:
Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Summary/Conclusions and Discussion/Future Research .
Determine the central message for each section of your poster in your presentation .
What is the central message of your Introduction? This section should start with your general research
objectives, then provide a few lines about the context of your work, and end with a clear statement of the
hypotheses or predictions that you tested .
What is the central message of your Methods? Provide the bare essentials with regard to the subjects,
study site, and protocol. Don’t be so brief that the viewer can’t figure out what you did, but do give some
thought as to what is really relevant to this particular talk . If some facet of your research is peripheral, leave
it out .
What is the central message of your Results? What did you discover? Did your tests come out the way you
expected?
What is the central message of your Summary/Conclusions and Discussion/Future Research? This is
where you deliver the take-home message. Again, in 25 words or less, what is the dramatic finding that you
want your audience to remember? And why should they care? This is very important, because viewers want
to know what you did and why it is significant.
115