ABSTRACT

Many scientists treat writing a poster in the same way as writing a paper for a journal—and include almost as much information. It is very tempting, particularly if short of time, to try to write poster directly onto a PowerPoint slide or other publishing software. It is much better to write using a word processing package. Many delegates will 'skim read' a poster before deciding to invest time and effort in reading it fully. Skimmers generally spend 30 seconds or less deciding whether to read the full poster. There is a temptation to think that, provided the science is correct and can be understood, the language and spelling are irrelevant. This is not true. When delegates read a poorly written poster, they subconsciously receive the message that the author is sloppy, unwilling to put in additional effort to achieve excellence and does not take care of small details.