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Thank you for submitting to WRHC 2025! Find some useful tips for preparing your proposal and presentation below.
An abstract is a brief a 300-word summary of your project, which includes purpose, context, methods, brief conclusion.
How to write an abstract:
Briefly describe what is already known
Describe the motivation behind your project and how it contributes to what is already known
Describe how you approached your project
Describe the outcome of your project
Brief conclusion on the implications of your work
Your poster should be 36 inches by 24 inches and rollable.
We have created a page with more detailed information. Click here to navigate to that page. Some quick tips are below.
Quick Tips:
Use large point serif fonts, so that it can be read easily from at least 3 feet.
Minimize text in favor of using images you can explain orally to your audience.
Title should not exceed two lines. Author(s) should be below the title, and your department and institution should be below the author line.
Clearly state your research question/hypothesis, problem statement or concept as well as your conclusions.
Use bold, bright, primary colors and try to use a consistent color theme.
Provide enough background information so that the readers understand the question or concept being addressed.
Arrange the information on your poster so that it “flows” clearly label figures, tables, and graphs.
Aim for 500-800 words. Anything over 1000 is too wordy.
Proofread, proofread, proofread! Once posters are printed, there is no changing them.
Prepare your poster early, it will take longer than you think!
Online Resources:
“Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentations”
“Designing Conference Posters”
Poster Templates:
“Poster Presentations Free Templates”
Prepare for the Poster Session:
Once you have created your poster, it’s time to prepare to present it! Poster sessions are much less formal than conference talks or lectures, so no need to stress about giving a perfectly practiced speech. Go into the poster session with the aim of having fruitful conversations with your fellow researchers.
You should be able to summarize your work in just a couple of minutes for anyone who visits your poster and then be prepared to answer any follow-up questions. Try to keep your summary short, since most attendees would like to visit several posters during the session and may be too polite to walk away if you keep them too long. You will have more interesting discussions if you allow visitors to ask you to elaborate on the parts of your research that they find most interesting.
Presenting your research can be stressful, especially the first time, but remember that no one knows your work better than yourself.
- Start early
Few people enjoy public speaking, so procrastinating seems reasonable, but all it does is cause you more anxiety.
- Relax, no one is listening to you
Always act like whatever you say or do is exactly what you meant. Apologizing only draws attention to it, driving up the percentage of witnesses from 2-3% to 100%.
- Plan to be interesting
If your topic was stupid, would someone as smart and creative as you chosen it? And how can someone with your unique life experiences and perspectives be anything but fascinating?
- Be you, at maximum volume.
This has nothing to do with how loud you speak. The research is clear: authenticity trumps everything else.
- Speak up
Unless you have done a lot of speaking, your voice is going to sound loud inside your head. If it does not, no one can hear you! You have permission to use your outside voice inside, take advantage of the opportunity. Unsure if you are going to be loud enough? Ask a friend to sit in the back row and give you signals.
- Talk like a normal person
There is a misconception that using big words will make you sound smarter. The opposite is true. First, if a word doesn’t roll off your tongue when you’re not thinking about it, the odds it will come out correctly when you are nervous are infinitesimal, making you look like an idiot to the people who know how to use the word correctly. Second, audiences expect you to be to explain your topic in a manner that they understand. If you cannot do this, you must be less intelligent than them. Use the same language you use every day.
- All oral presentations should use a PowerPoint presentation.
- If your bullet points are grammatically correct, they are too complicated.
- Your slides tell the audience what you are discussing. You are the sole source of information. Do your best to not read your slides verbatim.
- Have fun. Everyone experiences a shot of adrenaline when speaking in front of a large audience. Enjoy the rush.
- Practice out loud. Sure, practicing in front of peers who will give you honest, constructive feedback is ideal (you don’t want to engrain any bad habits). Practicing inside your head will only help you the next time you are asked to deliver your presentation inside your head.
- Plan to be interesting. People do not pay attention to boring things.
- If you are going to have slides, use PowerPoint.