In the Classroom
How to Present a Paper or Poster P. A. Huddle Department of Chemistry, University of Witwatersrand, P O Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa;
[email protected] In 1998 I attended the 15th ICCE meeting in Egypt and was concerned that several potentially good presentations were marred by easily remedied errors. The ACS Handbook for Speakers points out that “presenting a paper before any audience is a privilege which entails an obligation to communicate to the best of one’s ability” (1). The potential for good communication is attainable but not always realized at conferences and I suggest that stringent requirements similar to those for publication in journals should be given and rigorously adhered to for presentations at conferences. Keeping to time is especially important when several sessions are being held in parallel! I put forward the following suggestions for oral and poster presentations at conferences, to improve overall communication and in the hope of moving towards greater professionalism. The ACS Handbook for Speakers contains further excellent advice for authors, especially on the production of slides (1). (Point 2 below is specifically for overhead transparencies; refer to the Handbook (1) for font size requirements for slides.) Preparing and Presenting a Paper
DOs 1. DO write only 8–10 points per slide or overhead transparency. 2. DO use a font size between 18 and 24. 3. DO keep the font simple (e.g., Times New Roman, Universal, or Arial). Flowery scripts are difficult to read, especially if one is not familiar with the words. 4. DO use color with care. Yellow, green, and pastel shades fade to nothing on a white background. Normally, no slide should contain more than three colors: one for the background, one for the writing or figures, and one to highlight the main features on the slide. Computer-generated slides with a background picture often are too busy and should be avoided for all but the title and final acknowledgments slides. 5. DO keep abbreviations to a minimum. Excessive use of them may render a talk unintelligible to people not working in the field. If abbreviations are used, DO use footnotes to explain them each time they are used. 6. DO speak slowly and clearly enough that people at the back of the room can hear you. If you have a quiet voice, DO use a microphone, especially if you are a plenary speaker giving your talk in a large theater. 7. DO start with a brief outline of your talk. Its helps orient the audience to why information is being given. 8. DO give only an overview of research undertaken, the reason for doing it, a few examples of tools used and/or chemical pathways involved, important results, and possible implications of the work. One cannot coherently present more in 20 minutes. The “emphasis should be on significance, rather than detail” (1).
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9. If you present a diagram, spectrum, or table DO keep it simple and show trends rather than actual data. For tables, DO eliminate all data not relevant to the major thrust of the talk and round off numbers where possible (e.g., 50 is easier to read than 49.87). Both these suggestions enable the audience to see trends more easily. 10. DO go over your talk prior to the conference to determine whether it fits into the time available. If it does not, DO cut it down and DO remember to leave some time for questions. 11. DO check the quality of slides and overheads well in advance of the conference. If they cannot be seen easily from the back of an average-sized lecture room, DO something about it!
DON’Ts 1. DON’T write every word of your talk on the slides. You’re giving a talk, not a reading, of your work. 2. DON’T present a paper if the language to be used at the conference is not one in which you are fluent or confident. Rather, offer a poster, where less talking is required in a less threatening environment. 3. DON’T whip transparencies on and off the overhead projector at a breakneck pace. If you use a transparency, then give the audience time to orient themselves to the data presented before you proceed further. 4. DON’T photocopy tables or text directly from theses, journal articles, etc., onto transparencies without first enlarging them. Two successive 1.414× enlargements is usually sufficient to ensure that the resultant text can be read from the back of an average-sized lecture theater. 5. DON’T write transparencies by hand if at all possible. Few people have handwriting that can compete with computergenerated copy. 6. DON’T think that saying “sorry about the quality of this slide” or “you won’t be able to see this properly, but…” exonerates you from presenting bad transparencies. Modern technology makes it so easy to generate high-quality overhead transparencies and slides that this is no longer an acceptable excuse. 7. DON’T move a laser pointer arrow all over the slide while you are talking. Use the arrow to highlight a point or value on a slide and then switch it off. Discussion If all papers at conferences met the above criteria, we would be moving a long way towards “communicating to the best of our ability” (1). Further advice and actual examples for the preparation of effective graphs, tables, and schematic diagrams as well as how to prepare clear, legible slides are given in the ACS Handbook for Speakers, which can be accessed on the Internet (1). Bunnett’s article “Techniques for Spoiling your own Scientific Talk” highlights further common errors made by speakers (2).
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 77 No. 9 September 2000 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
In the Classroom
Preparing and Presenting a Poster Posters give the researcher an opportunity to present new ideas in a less formal setting. At the 15th ICCE meeting, among the best posters were one showing the use of ordinary beads to make models of organic compounds (3) and another showing various setups for demonstrating electrochemical reactions (4 ). Neither of these lent themselves to formal presentations. Posters are also the ideal way for foreign delegates to present their work if they not yet mastered the language of the conference. Points 1–5 for presenting papers apply equally to posters. What follows are further guidelines for presenting an effective, professional poster. 1. The poster should be eye-catching. You want people to stop and read it! 2. It must be easily readable from 1.2 meters (about 4 feet). 3. Double line spacing is essential. 4. Only the essential features of your work should be on the poster. It should not resemble a mini–journal article. 5. Use flow charts where possible to describe methods and techniques. A good diagram can convey a 1000 words. 6. Where relevant, include a hypothesis model scheme. 7. Give brief sentences using bullets to highlight each result and conclusion so that they are easily identifiable. Long paragraphs tend to mask the main points. 8. Include an envelope to hold business cards and a sheet of paper for names and addresses so that visitors to the posters can communicate with the author when he or she is not present at the site. 9. The ACS Handbook for Speakers gives a few pointers for preparation and presentation of posters (1). Suffice it to add that the presentation should be brief (3 minutes maximum) and should be a logical summary of only the most important aspects of your work. If you capture the interest of your audience, they can then read the poster at their leisure. What works very well for poster preparation is the use of a large sheet of thin colored cardboard onto which are pasted white A4 (8.5 × 11-in.) sheets of paper with black print and the main words highlighted in color. Photos, diagrams, etc. can be added to illustrate various points. The final result is then laminated. These posters can be rolled up for easy
transportation and are easily attached to the poster boards. There is a new technology that allows for the formation of a poster where the background and sheets of information are all printed as a single unit before lamination, but they are very costly owing to the extensive use of color printing cartridges. The simpler, cheaper idea outlined first can be as effective and professional-looking. If lamination is not possible, then the white sheets of paper can be pasted onto 9.5 × 12-in. colored cardboard pieces. These also allow for easy transport and attachment to the poster boards. Conclusion Papers and posters at conferences should be professional, coherent presentations of work that the author is proud to be involved in. Accredited journals publish work of an extremely high standard; this standard needs to be aspired to at conferences. Conference organizers should outline their exact requirements for papers and posters chosen to be presented at their conference and then ensure that the presenters conform to them. I conclude with a quote from an essay by Sir Francis Bacon: “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man” (5). Almost 400 years have elapsed since this was written and technology has advanced considerably—is it not time for conferences to start making an exact man? May all presenters of scientific knowledge move toward exactness and greater professionalism in the 21st century! Literature Cited 1. American Chemical Society. Handbook for Speakers; http://www. acs.org/meetings/handbook.html (accessed Jul 2000). 2. Bunnett, J. F. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 1119. 3. Ellatif, A. Use of Beads to Make Models of Chemical Compounds; Presented at 15th ICCE, Cairo, Egypt, August 1998; Poster P75. 4. Osredkar, M. Galvanic Cell Goes to School; Presented at 15th ICCE, Cairo, Egypt, August 1998; Poster P2. 5. Bacon, F. In Lord Bacon’s Essays on “Studies”; H Parson: London, 1720; p 256; translated from Latin by W. Willymott.
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