HOW TO ...
Produce a Good Poster DOIG SIMMONDS
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
Doig Simmonds, MSIAD, AMA, is ChiefMedical Artist, Department $Medical Illustration, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Ducane Road, London, W f 2 OHS, UK. ‘Poster sessions’ have become a widespread feature of medical meetings. Here, a n experienced medical artist gives his guidelines for producing a poster that provides clear information i n a n attractive and easy-toassemble format. ‘I‘lw postcr stassion has now come to replace, or at least coiitpc.tc with. thr ‘ 10-minute’ lecture presentation which was ari important feature of many medical meetings. It is
display lit‘ recent research material on a vertical panel ;itid ~isuallvrtbquires the presence of the author to discuss liis or her work.
il
Advantages and Disadvantages of Poster Sessions I * h c primary advantage of prescnting data via the poster si*ssion is that it allows the audience to ‘float’ to their particular subjects of interest rather than have to wait for thrm t o occur at specific and limited periods in the tiriic-table of lectures. It also provides an opportunity for I;ict~-tci-l;ic~ riirctings with authors without severe limitatioris on discussion time. T h r disadvantages of poster sessions are principally the li)llowing: 0 Prcparing postcrs requires more effort and expense than preparing a 10-minute lecture. 0 Posit-rs are oftcn not used subsequently, and many pwple rrgard thc cfhrt required in the manufacture as an rxpensive waste 01’ resources. 0 An authodpresenter can be seriously disadvantaged by ht-ing placcd in an awkward position in the hall, or may hiivt- poor lighting conditions to contend with. These do not iifftsct the 10 minute talk to the same degree. Some presenters are fortunate in having the facilities of an illustration service available. Others have no access to special skills or sophisticated equipment. These inequalitics may also affect the 10-minute presentation but usually less so.
Some of these disadvantages can be overcome. Design A good poster is uisited-often in spite of its subject matter. To achieve this a poster must be attractive. If you 10
have good data then it is worth going to a lot of trouble to make them comprehensible. Do not forget that 95 per cent of your audience are nonspecialist in the particular aspect of the subject which is your speciality. What they will require is clarity, and this can only be achieved through simplification of your data. If you achieve attractiveness and clarity the chances are that you will be near to memorability, but the latter requires something in addition. There must be something exciting about your presentation. It must stimulate the imagination of the observer by presenting data in a challenging way-dare I say in a provocative manner. Remember that you are in a highly competitive situation. There may be a hundred or more poster presentations at the same conference. You have something to sell-an idea, a technique or a combination of both. You have got to be positive about this and use some of the techniques which you see around you every day in the world of advertising or in the daily newspapers. Use large, carefully selected key words. For instance, you could have the following title: “A study of ARTHRITIS and its association with psychological processes” In this case arthritis is chosen as the key word. But there is still something wrong. The heading has the sober quality one associates with an article for the medical press-it is boring. Why not try: “ARTHRITIS-an attitude of mind?” This shocker will certainly bring people to your display. They will want to know more, indeed they will have to know more; they will not be able to sleep until they have been either stunned by your reasoning or strongly sat islied that they have destroyed your myth. Whichever is the case, your material is unlikely to be easily forgotten. Rules for Writing Posters There are several publications which deal with rules for and methods of writing clearly on scientific subjects, and some of these are mentioned in the Further Reading section at the end of this article. I will mention in particular those which affect writing for posters. 11 is essential to prCcis the texts efficiently. The number of words on any poster should not exceed 500-an ideal Medical Teacher Vol 6 No 1 1984
hardly ever achieved. When writing for a poster it helps to achieve clarity. If possible answer the following questions of Sir Austin Bradford Hill in the design of your poster:
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
1. Why did you start? 2. What did you do? 3. What answer did you get? 4. What does it mean? Then support these with Dr Stephen Locks’ criteria: 0 Choose the correct word. OChoose the familiar rather than the obscure word. 0 Prefer the single word to the several. 0 Prrfer the concrete to the abstract. @Prefer the short to the long. 0 Prefer the word of Saxon origin to that of Roman. 0 Write with nouns and verbs not adjectives or adverbs.
Dividing the Poster Following on from the ‘Bradford Hill Rules’ it is sensible to divide a poster session into the following sections. 0 Zntraduction: a short historical summary followed by the aims of the present study. OMethodr: describe the logical basis for experimentation and mention any relevant limiting factors. 0 Results: illustrate changes and trends by showing simplified charts and graphs. Avoid tables, standard deviation, standard errors of the mean, and all such accurate minutiae wherever possible. Some of the latter may be scientifically important but keep them for the handout (mentioned in more detail below). 0 Conclusions: discuss the success of your work. Transmit a sense of excitement to the observer if you can. Will the results alter the course of medical practice? Do mention any exciting possibilities for the future. Good research is never complete in that further study and enquiry is often vital so stimulate it.
Good Pasters Good posters need good production. This can only begin
when the questions below have been answered by the organizers of the conference. Organizers’ instruction are notoriously inadequate. It is up to the participant to make sure that he receives the information required (Figure 1).
Stuges in Making u Poster
Posters are best made in stages. Stage 1: collect the material from which you will eventually make the poster. This will usually consist of previously published data, photographs, charts, graphs, diagrams, tables. handwritten notes, etc. Now think: “What does the uninformed observer Medical Teach Vol 6 No I 1984
Figure 1. Questions to ask in order to produce u good poster. 1. What size is the support panel on which the poster is to be fixed?
2 . What format is the panel? Is its long edge horizontal or vertical. (Do not accept words like ‘length’, ‘breadth’, ‘height’ or ‘depth’ as they may be used ambiguously in the context of poster displays). 3. Who will supply the means forf x i n g your presentation to the panel? (It is best if the organizers do this as they know what kind of panels will be available). 4. What limits have been set for the sizes of lettering required for the title card, headings, sub-headings and texts. (This is often impossible to comply with exactly, particularly if the presenter has no access to specialist resources; nevertheless it is important to accept the organizer’s rules where possible).
really want to know about this. What is the most iniportant single element in the research I’ve been involved in all this time?” Concentrate on this and selcct l i o i i i your material only those items which illustrate o r describe this single element. Stuge 2: decide how you will best deal with the phvsical properties ofthe data y o u ha\.e,iust sc-lwtc*tl I’rorii tlic. m i s s of material available t o you. ‘I‘hcre may be 1arg.e charts previously used o n the wall lor teaching, only part of which you need and these will require photography or photocopying. A picturc lroiii ii previous publication may need copying. You may have a good colour priiit on heavyweight paper. You will probably need t o draw some graphs; what size should they be? You will have soinc texts to type nut and mayhc enlarge il’l’ac4iticswist t o t l o this. It is advantageous ilall these bits and picccs are lixcd to thin cards which you can take t o the merting and put on the panels provided. These support cards protrrt your data and simplify thc process of linal presentation. What size should support cards be? Here you are limited to what is available in your local art shop or national supplicrs. In England, colourcd cards 1 inm thick and 110 cm by 80 cm arc available from this Dalrr Board Company. ‘These cards can be cut into four, thus making a modular unit of 55 cm by 40 cm-a convenient size for carrying or putting into a suitcase It will be lound that by using these cards in a horizontal or vertical arrangement, they can be made to fill or nearly fill most exhibition lormats (Figures 2-4). Each card will take two A4 sheets 0 1 paper or up to six 15 x 12 cm photographs. Try to keep all copies, prints, photographs and drawings within a maximum of’A4 size (21 x 29 cm). You now have a modular system capable of dealing with almost any situation. Stuge 3: Look at your selected data. Can it be made to fit into the modular system without crossing the junction lines formed by the cards? Will it all reduce to the useful sizes successfully? Place your data, as it is, in its ‘primary’ form on the floor if necessary so that it is in the order you want-never mind the actual size of the bits
If
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
Figure 4a. Eight vertical modular unils plus title board occufiy u display space 6.0 horizontal x 43 vertical; b. Four horizontal modular units plus title board occupy a display space 4 ) .sport.
Figure 2 . Muhc mrt’ you know the size and format Ofthe panel w o po\&r.
/ot
Figure 3. .4 \1mrlurd (L‘K sirv.c) .\he1 qfcard when cut intu.four p r o i f i h the basis ,for a modular y s t e m .
iqicol port\
12
and pieces at this stage. Now ask your colleagues to help you make sense of it. Make sure that some of these colleagues are not familiar with your work. What do they think should be included for additional clarity? What can be removed without destroying the meaning and thus result in simplfication? Make a sketch of your final layout; it does not have to be very precise. This sketch contains the working information needed for final production. Number each item in the centre or on its reverse side and be sure to make a ‘box’ on your sketch plan with a corresponding number. It is economical to proceed with the actual producrion only after the stage 3 discussion and final selection has been made. Stage 4: Aim for attractiveness. Avoid an overall white effect. The background ‘modular units’ should be i n a colour to suit the predominant colour of‘the items which they support. Look at any colour photographs first. If these include pinks and reds such as are seen in photomicrographs, then avoid using a red background. There should be a big enough colour or tonal difference between the support and the data. If drawings are left on white then put texts onto pale coloured paper and use these colours to help group the data. Thus clinical trials could be on one colour and results on another. Reserve the strongest and brightesr colours for tht- introduction and the conclusion, particularly the latter as this section is nearly always read first and so needs to be easy to find. Medical Teacher Vol 6 No I 1984
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
Additiunal factors to be taken into account are: Lettering and lettering sizes: This is likely to be the biggest problem especially for those who have nothing but the office typewriter. If sophisticated techniques are available choosr the boldest, thickest typeface available and enlarge the general text so that the height of a capital letter is somewhtw in the range 5 to 6 inin for 1 m reading distance or 8 to 10 m m for 2 m reading distance. Do not use capital letters throughout as these are slower and more tiring to read and reduce the effectiveness of capitals when used to denote abbreviations such as A C T H o r chemicals such as C O O H . Avoid long lines of text as these are also tiring to read. T h e most efficient-to-read line length in English is 36 to 40 characters long (interword spaces and punctuation arc each counted as a ‘character’). In effect this means that an average line should not be longer than six words. Subtitles may be enlarged to 15 rnm capital height. Try to keep subtitles to single words. The main title may be enlarged to 25 m m capital height and is best kept to a maximum of eight words. For those who do not have enlargement techniques, use the boldest, thickest typeface a\,ailable, a carbon ribbon, and type onto pale coloured soft, reasonably thick paper. The latter helps to thicken the image. Use triple line spacing. Line spacing becomes particularly important if your t).pewriter produces only capitals and you may have
Figure 5 . A poster using f a i r b sophisticated techniques can be made to look aftractive. In this case the (ypewritten texts were enlarged ontof i l m and then placed over coloured sheets ofpaper. An Econosicn lettering machine was used to produce the larger heading>. This is both quick and economical. (Produced by kind permission of Professor C. 1’. Dollery. Photo,graphy by William 7)ubri4~~.)
to add an extra space between words. T r y reading the results from a distance of one metre and let your choice depend on this. Handwriting skills can be developed or
lettering templates used with specially designed pens. Both these techniques require a little practice but they are not difficult if the rules are followed. Use wax spray aerosol adhesive to fix all finished items to the support boards. If used sparingly all items can be safely removed later if necessary. It is essential to pack all poster material flat, and to see that nothing can slide about inside the package. Any item that moves can cause a great deal of damage in transit. If you do have anything smaller than the modular card, then tape it to the reverse side of the lowest card.
Handouts These are very valuable to both participant and audience. T h e participant can cite references, give more statistical details in the form of tables, and generally augment the displayed material. It is also essential to provide a name, address and telephone number. From the observer’s point of view it provides a chance to examine the subject later on at leisure, and it gives the contact address for further communication. After the conference is over, is all the effort that you have so carefully put in to be wasted? Why not use your poster as ‘propaganda’ on the walls of your department or office. Posters used this way have a good public relations effect on your visitors and provide you with visual data for communication (Figure 5). T h e handouts d o not need to be wasted either. With little or no modification they can provide useful lecture notes or be the basis for a paper. Used in this way the work put in becomes satisfyingly economical. Sources for Materials Card. Dalrr Hoard C h i . \.V;iretiaiii, Ihrset, CK. ‘l’el. 0W)j 6021. Coluutudpapr. C . F . Siiiitli (Lr C h i . . Lrathrr .Ilarket. Generiil art supplirs ( I ~ i i i c l o i i itrrii). Sargcnts Emt)riiok I.td. 684 hlitchaiii Road. Croydoii. ‘l’rl:684 41 16. Gclioi Whitriiari. I 1 Herrc.hcll Road. Lontlo~iSE23. ‘l’cl. 699 9262. Other sprritic details 011 postrr production may be obtained frim the author. Further Reading Swinscow TDV. Stnfisfics at square one. London: British Medical Journal, 1981. Harper W M . Stati.&J. Plyriioutli: hlactlonald and Evans. 1976. Reynolds I., Sirniiionds 1). fi~wntation q / dafa in wzrnrr. ‘l’he Hagur: hlartinus Ni,jhol. 1982. lnstitutr ol Mcdiral and Ihlogical Illustration. Charti and graph,. I.ancastrr: M’I’P Prcw. 1980. Hill AH. ’l’hr r ~ u ~ i i liir i s writing. Hr ,hied,/ 1965: 2: 870. Calnan J. Harahas A . Ctiifin,yn i d i i a l p u p m . London: Hc.ineiiianri, 1973. Acknowledgements Most o l thrse notes are derived Iroiii ii lecture tldivrrcd ar it syiiiposiuiii on Writing and Speaking in Medicine organized by Dr Clitlord Hawkins at l’hr I’ostgrarltiate Mrtliral Cmtrr, Hirrriinghairi Univcrsity Medical School, October 1982. Some illustrations have been adapted from PIescnfafiono f h f u in scicnce, published by Martinus Nijhof. Some of the material is derived from work commissioned by W . B. Pharmaceuticals Ltd (Boehringer Inglehim Ltd) to be published at a later date.
Medical Teacher Vol 6 No 1 1984
13
Produce a Good Poster DOIG SIMMONDS
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
Doig Simmonds, MSIAD, AMA, is ChiefMedical Artist, Department $Medical Illustration, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Ducane Road, London, W f 2 OHS, UK. ‘Poster sessions’ have become a widespread feature of medical meetings. Here, a n experienced medical artist gives his guidelines for producing a poster that provides clear information i n a n attractive and easy-toassemble format. ‘I‘lw postcr stassion has now come to replace, or at least coiitpc.tc with. thr ‘ 10-minute’ lecture presentation which was ari important feature of many medical meetings. It is
display lit‘ recent research material on a vertical panel ;itid ~isuallvrtbquires the presence of the author to discuss liis or her work.
il
Advantages and Disadvantages of Poster Sessions I * h c primary advantage of prescnting data via the poster si*ssion is that it allows the audience to ‘float’ to their particular subjects of interest rather than have to wait for thrm t o occur at specific and limited periods in the tiriic-table of lectures. It also provides an opportunity for I;ict~-tci-l;ic~ riirctings with authors without severe limitatioris on discussion time. T h r disadvantages of poster sessions are principally the li)llowing: 0 Prcparing postcrs requires more effort and expense than preparing a 10-minute lecture. 0 Posit-rs are oftcn not used subsequently, and many pwple rrgard thc cfhrt required in the manufacture as an rxpensive waste 01’ resources. 0 An authodpresenter can be seriously disadvantaged by ht-ing placcd in an awkward position in the hall, or may hiivt- poor lighting conditions to contend with. These do not iifftsct the 10 minute talk to the same degree. Some presenters are fortunate in having the facilities of an illustration service available. Others have no access to special skills or sophisticated equipment. These inequalitics may also affect the 10-minute presentation but usually less so.
Some of these disadvantages can be overcome. Design A good poster is uisited-often in spite of its subject matter. To achieve this a poster must be attractive. If you 10
have good data then it is worth going to a lot of trouble to make them comprehensible. Do not forget that 95 per cent of your audience are nonspecialist in the particular aspect of the subject which is your speciality. What they will require is clarity, and this can only be achieved through simplification of your data. If you achieve attractiveness and clarity the chances are that you will be near to memorability, but the latter requires something in addition. There must be something exciting about your presentation. It must stimulate the imagination of the observer by presenting data in a challenging way-dare I say in a provocative manner. Remember that you are in a highly competitive situation. There may be a hundred or more poster presentations at the same conference. You have something to sell-an idea, a technique or a combination of both. You have got to be positive about this and use some of the techniques which you see around you every day in the world of advertising or in the daily newspapers. Use large, carefully selected key words. For instance, you could have the following title: “A study of ARTHRITIS and its association with psychological processes” In this case arthritis is chosen as the key word. But there is still something wrong. The heading has the sober quality one associates with an article for the medical press-it is boring. Why not try: “ARTHRITIS-an attitude of mind?” This shocker will certainly bring people to your display. They will want to know more, indeed they will have to know more; they will not be able to sleep until they have been either stunned by your reasoning or strongly sat islied that they have destroyed your myth. Whichever is the case, your material is unlikely to be easily forgotten. Rules for Writing Posters There are several publications which deal with rules for and methods of writing clearly on scientific subjects, and some of these are mentioned in the Further Reading section at the end of this article. I will mention in particular those which affect writing for posters. 11 is essential to prCcis the texts efficiently. The number of words on any poster should not exceed 500-an ideal Medical Teacher Vol 6 No 1 1984
hardly ever achieved. When writing for a poster it helps to achieve clarity. If possible answer the following questions of Sir Austin Bradford Hill in the design of your poster:
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
1. Why did you start? 2. What did you do? 3. What answer did you get? 4. What does it mean? Then support these with Dr Stephen Locks’ criteria: 0 Choose the correct word. OChoose the familiar rather than the obscure word. 0 Prefer the single word to the several. 0 Prrfer the concrete to the abstract. @Prefer the short to the long. 0 Prefer the word of Saxon origin to that of Roman. 0 Write with nouns and verbs not adjectives or adverbs.
Dividing the Poster Following on from the ‘Bradford Hill Rules’ it is sensible to divide a poster session into the following sections. 0 Zntraduction: a short historical summary followed by the aims of the present study. OMethodr: describe the logical basis for experimentation and mention any relevant limiting factors. 0 Results: illustrate changes and trends by showing simplified charts and graphs. Avoid tables, standard deviation, standard errors of the mean, and all such accurate minutiae wherever possible. Some of the latter may be scientifically important but keep them for the handout (mentioned in more detail below). 0 Conclusions: discuss the success of your work. Transmit a sense of excitement to the observer if you can. Will the results alter the course of medical practice? Do mention any exciting possibilities for the future. Good research is never complete in that further study and enquiry is often vital so stimulate it.
Good Pasters Good posters need good production. This can only begin
when the questions below have been answered by the organizers of the conference. Organizers’ instruction are notoriously inadequate. It is up to the participant to make sure that he receives the information required (Figure 1).
Stuges in Making u Poster
Posters are best made in stages. Stage 1: collect the material from which you will eventually make the poster. This will usually consist of previously published data, photographs, charts, graphs, diagrams, tables. handwritten notes, etc. Now think: “What does the uninformed observer Medical Teach Vol 6 No I 1984
Figure 1. Questions to ask in order to produce u good poster. 1. What size is the support panel on which the poster is to be fixed?
2 . What format is the panel? Is its long edge horizontal or vertical. (Do not accept words like ‘length’, ‘breadth’, ‘height’ or ‘depth’ as they may be used ambiguously in the context of poster displays). 3. Who will supply the means forf x i n g your presentation to the panel? (It is best if the organizers do this as they know what kind of panels will be available). 4. What limits have been set for the sizes of lettering required for the title card, headings, sub-headings and texts. (This is often impossible to comply with exactly, particularly if the presenter has no access to specialist resources; nevertheless it is important to accept the organizer’s rules where possible).
really want to know about this. What is the most iniportant single element in the research I’ve been involved in all this time?” Concentrate on this and selcct l i o i i i your material only those items which illustrate o r describe this single element. Stuge 2: decide how you will best deal with the phvsical properties ofthe data y o u ha\.e,iust sc-lwtc*tl I’rorii tlic. m i s s of material available t o you. ‘I‘hcre may be 1arg.e charts previously used o n the wall lor teaching, only part of which you need and these will require photography or photocopying. A picturc lroiii ii previous publication may need copying. You may have a good colour priiit on heavyweight paper. You will probably need t o draw some graphs; what size should they be? You will have soinc texts to type nut and mayhc enlarge il’l’ac4iticswist t o t l o this. It is advantageous ilall these bits and picccs are lixcd to thin cards which you can take t o the merting and put on the panels provided. These support cards protrrt your data and simplify thc process of linal presentation. What size should support cards be? Here you are limited to what is available in your local art shop or national supplicrs. In England, colourcd cards 1 inm thick and 110 cm by 80 cm arc available from this Dalrr Board Company. ‘These cards can be cut into four, thus making a modular unit of 55 cm by 40 cm-a convenient size for carrying or putting into a suitcase It will be lound that by using these cards in a horizontal or vertical arrangement, they can be made to fill or nearly fill most exhibition lormats (Figures 2-4). Each card will take two A4 sheets 0 1 paper or up to six 15 x 12 cm photographs. Try to keep all copies, prints, photographs and drawings within a maximum of’A4 size (21 x 29 cm). You now have a modular system capable of dealing with almost any situation. Stuge 3: Look at your selected data. Can it be made to fit into the modular system without crossing the junction lines formed by the cards? Will it all reduce to the useful sizes successfully? Place your data, as it is, in its ‘primary’ form on the floor if necessary so that it is in the order you want-never mind the actual size of the bits
If
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
Figure 4a. Eight vertical modular unils plus title board occufiy u display space 6.0 horizontal x 43 vertical; b. Four horizontal modular units plus title board occupy a display space 4 ) .sport.
Figure 2 . Muhc mrt’ you know the size and format Ofthe panel w o po\&r.
/ot
Figure 3. .4 \1mrlurd (L‘K sirv.c) .\he1 qfcard when cut intu.four p r o i f i h the basis ,for a modular y s t e m .
iqicol port\
12
and pieces at this stage. Now ask your colleagues to help you make sense of it. Make sure that some of these colleagues are not familiar with your work. What do they think should be included for additional clarity? What can be removed without destroying the meaning and thus result in simplfication? Make a sketch of your final layout; it does not have to be very precise. This sketch contains the working information needed for final production. Number each item in the centre or on its reverse side and be sure to make a ‘box’ on your sketch plan with a corresponding number. It is economical to proceed with the actual producrion only after the stage 3 discussion and final selection has been made. Stage 4: Aim for attractiveness. Avoid an overall white effect. The background ‘modular units’ should be i n a colour to suit the predominant colour of‘the items which they support. Look at any colour photographs first. If these include pinks and reds such as are seen in photomicrographs, then avoid using a red background. There should be a big enough colour or tonal difference between the support and the data. If drawings are left on white then put texts onto pale coloured paper and use these colours to help group the data. Thus clinical trials could be on one colour and results on another. Reserve the strongest and brightesr colours for tht- introduction and the conclusion, particularly the latter as this section is nearly always read first and so needs to be easy to find. Medical Teacher Vol 6 No I 1984
Med Teach Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Queen's University on 12/29/14 For personal use only.
Additiunal factors to be taken into account are: Lettering and lettering sizes: This is likely to be the biggest problem especially for those who have nothing but the office typewriter. If sophisticated techniques are available choosr the boldest, thickest typeface available and enlarge the general text so that the height of a capital letter is somewhtw in the range 5 to 6 inin for 1 m reading distance or 8 to 10 m m for 2 m reading distance. Do not use capital letters throughout as these are slower and more tiring to read and reduce the effectiveness of capitals when used to denote abbreviations such as A C T H o r chemicals such as C O O H . Avoid long lines of text as these are also tiring to read. T h e most efficient-to-read line length in English is 36 to 40 characters long (interword spaces and punctuation arc each counted as a ‘character’). In effect this means that an average line should not be longer than six words. Subtitles may be enlarged to 15 rnm capital height. Try to keep subtitles to single words. The main title may be enlarged to 25 m m capital height and is best kept to a maximum of eight words. For those who do not have enlargement techniques, use the boldest, thickest typeface a\,ailable, a carbon ribbon, and type onto pale coloured soft, reasonably thick paper. The latter helps to thicken the image. Use triple line spacing. Line spacing becomes particularly important if your t).pewriter produces only capitals and you may have
Figure 5 . A poster using f a i r b sophisticated techniques can be made to look aftractive. In this case the (ypewritten texts were enlarged ontof i l m and then placed over coloured sheets ofpaper. An Econosicn lettering machine was used to produce the larger heading>. This is both quick and economical. (Produced by kind permission of Professor C. 1’. Dollery. Photo,graphy by William 7)ubri4~~.)
to add an extra space between words. T r y reading the results from a distance of one metre and let your choice depend on this. Handwriting skills can be developed or
lettering templates used with specially designed pens. Both these techniques require a little practice but they are not difficult if the rules are followed. Use wax spray aerosol adhesive to fix all finished items to the support boards. If used sparingly all items can be safely removed later if necessary. It is essential to pack all poster material flat, and to see that nothing can slide about inside the package. Any item that moves can cause a great deal of damage in transit. If you do have anything smaller than the modular card, then tape it to the reverse side of the lowest card.
Handouts These are very valuable to both participant and audience. T h e participant can cite references, give more statistical details in the form of tables, and generally augment the displayed material. It is also essential to provide a name, address and telephone number. From the observer’s point of view it provides a chance to examine the subject later on at leisure, and it gives the contact address for further communication. After the conference is over, is all the effort that you have so carefully put in to be wasted? Why not use your poster as ‘propaganda’ on the walls of your department or office. Posters used this way have a good public relations effect on your visitors and provide you with visual data for communication (Figure 5). T h e handouts d o not need to be wasted either. With little or no modification they can provide useful lecture notes or be the basis for a paper. Used in this way the work put in becomes satisfyingly economical. Sources for Materials Card. Dalrr Hoard C h i . \.V;iretiaiii, Ihrset, CK. ‘l’el. 0W)j 6021. Coluutudpapr. C . F . Siiiitli (Lr C h i . . Lrathrr .Ilarket. Generiil art supplirs ( I ~ i i i c l o i i itrrii). Sargcnts Emt)riiok I.td. 684 hlitchaiii Road. Croydoii. ‘l’rl:684 41 16. Gclioi Whitriiari. I 1 Herrc.hcll Road. Lontlo~iSE23. ‘l’cl. 699 9262. Other sprritic details 011 postrr production may be obtained frim the author. Further Reading Swinscow TDV. Stnfisfics at square one. London: British Medical Journal, 1981. Harper W M . Stati.&J. Plyriioutli: hlactlonald and Evans. 1976. Reynolds I., Sirniiionds 1). fi~wntation q / dafa in wzrnrr. ‘l’he Hagur: hlartinus Ni,jhol. 1982. lnstitutr ol Mcdiral and Ihlogical Illustration. Charti and graph,. I.ancastrr: M’I’P Prcw. 1980. Hill AH. ’l’hr r ~ u ~ i i liir i s writing. Hr ,hied,/ 1965: 2: 870. Calnan J. Harahas A . Ctiifin,yn i d i i a l p u p m . London: Hc.ineiiianri, 1973. Acknowledgements Most o l thrse notes are derived Iroiii ii lecture tldivrrcd ar it syiiiposiuiii on Writing and Speaking in Medicine organized by Dr Clitlord Hawkins at l’hr I’ostgrarltiate Mrtliral Cmtrr, Hirrriinghairi Univcrsity Medical School, October 1982. Some illustrations have been adapted from PIescnfafiono f h f u in scicnce, published by Martinus Nijhof. Some of the material is derived from work commissioned by W . B. Pharmaceuticals Ltd (Boehringer Inglehim Ltd) to be published at a later date.
Medical Teacher Vol 6 No 1 1984
13
