Language for presenting posters

When someone appears interested in your poster, don’t simply hit them with the cold hard facts – try to tell a story with your poster. This enables you to make a more personal connection with your audience and maintain their interest.

It’s important to take your viewer through your poster in a logical way. You can use some of the language below to help you.

Tell them who you are

Hi there, I’m Angela and I’m a genetic researcher from the University of Birmingham in the UK.

This sort of introduction might open up a conversation about where you work.

Tell them what your work is

• My work focuses on….
• My research is centred around…
• The work I do deals with…
• My research project is all about…

 Tell them why you chose this work

• This area has always been of interest to me because…
• I decided to focus on this area because…
• I was drawn to this area of research because…

 Tell them how your completed this work

• Use phrases that explain your process.

The first step was gathering data, which I did by conducting several lab experiments.

The initial stages of the project involved an extended period of participant recruitment.

• Use linkers to describe your process (I began by, firstly, secondly, then, consequently, having + past participle etc.)

Having recruited a number of participants, I then gathered all the necessary data from them.

Tell them what you found

Use presentation language to describe your findings

Describing your findings

Language for referring to visual elements on your poster

As you can see from this…	chart diagram flow chart graph picture map model table
If I could draw your attention to this…
If we refer to this…

 

This

chart diagram flow chart graph picture map model table

shows illustrate elaborates represents analyses explains examines

Other useful phrases:

• Here we can see that…
• You’ll notice that…
• If we observe the…

Language for describing your reaction to your findings

• Surprisingly/Unsurprisingly…
• Fortunately/Unfortunately…
• What’s interesting here is…
• As expected, I found that…
• I was surprised to find that…
• What I found fascinating was…

Responding to questions

Try to predict what questions people might ask in response to your poster so that you can prepare clear and concise answers.

If someone asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to you could say:

I’m afraid I don’t have that information with me right now but if you give me your details I can supply you with the answer.

If the question is one that you can’t answer you could say:

Unfortunately that question goes beyond the scope of my research.

Then you could explain why the question is outside your knowledge area and explain what further research or investigation would be necessary to answer it.

If you’re presenting to a few people at once you can finish your presentation by inviting questions using these phrases:

• I do hope you’ve found the information I’ve presented useful. I’d be happy to answer any questions that you have.
• If you have any questions, I’d be pleased to answer them.
• I’d welcome any questions or comments that you have.
• Do let me know if you have any questions about my work.

Try the short multiple-choice quiz below to test your understanding.