Creating Academic Posters for AssignmentsLearning Support

• Visual presentation of academic information

• Contains graphics (pictures/graphs/diagrams) and text

• Balances graphics and text

• Main message of poster should be communicated clearly without the need for lengthy text explanations

• Aim: to stimulate critique and exchange of ideas

What are Academic Posters?

1. Your poster is your essay in visual format

• It needs a beginning, middle and end

• First, write the essay on which your poster will be based

• This is the foundation for the text and choice of graphics for your poster

Tips for creating academic posters for assignments

2. Organise your poster into four main sections, based on your essay:

• Introduction – introduces the subject and main points

• Middle – includes information providing evidence for arguments/main points

• Discussion/Conclusion – shows how the evidence leads to main points or arguments

• References – as required in APA referencing guidelines

Tips for creating academic posters for assignments

3. Consider the graphics that can be used to support the text from your essay

• Images, graphs and diagrams need to be relevant to your text

• Images, graphs and diagrams should speak for themselves

• For best resolution, use JPEG

• Cite your images using APA citation guidelines (please refer to APAStyle Blog at http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2016/01/navigating-copyright-part-4.html for details)

Tips for creating academic posters for assignments

4. Decide on the layout (portrait or landscape) for your poster

• Consider how the graphics and text will be balanced for presentation and readability

• Choose the layout that best showcases the content of your poster

• The colour scheme/combination should not detract from the text/content

Tips for creating academic posters for assignments

5. Check subject outline for assignment requirements and assessment rubrics

• Review assignment requirements – content and discussion

• Review the assessment rubrics - structure, visual impact, clarity, readability

• Check that in-text and graphic citations match references in References list

Tips for creating academic posters for assignments

Example 1 - Landscape layout

From Islamic feminism and its role in cinema by S. Shah, 2010, Dr Sabina Shah blog. Retrieved from http://sabinashah.blogspot.com/2010/05/academic-poster.html

Example 2 – Portrait layout

From A. G. T. Guo, 2015, Samurais in the Edo period of Japan, assignment submitted for BA1001: Time, truth and the human condition, James Cook University.