Making the most of your abstract, poster and oral

presentations

AJ Frew, HE Smith

Brighton & Sussex Medical School

Purpose of abstract

• To advertise yourself & your work

• To secure selection for presentation

• To attract attendees to your presentation

• To provide a written reminder of your data during and after the meeting

Desirable characteristics

• Title that reflects contents

• Clear story

• Data (including some numbers and statistics)

Common errors• Failure to comply with the particular house style

of that conference• Selection of the wrong category• Unbalanced, often too much background and

not enough data• Abbreviations in title• No statistics• No conclusions• Simple spelling errors and grammatical mistakes

Reviewing Abstracts 1

• Is subject matter novel or exciting?

• Is it clear what has been done?

• Is the research question relevant?

• Will it be of interest to attendees?

• Has the author included all the information required in house style?

Reviewing Abstracts 2

• Are there any data yet?• Are results unambiguous and clearly stated?• Are the statistical methods used appropriate?• Are results interpreted and discussed

objectively?• Is there a valid conclusion?• Is there any undue influence of the sponsor?

Effective oral presentations

Purpose of oral presentation

• To show work and obtain feedback for writing up

• To make a mark • OPs are less useful than posters for:

– getting comments and feedback– getting advice for future work– getting future collaborations

• Few questions, and usually simple ones

Before starting

• How long have I got?

• How much time is allocated for discussion?

• Who is the audience?

• What are the main results/points?– (one sentence summary)

How many slides?• Aim for 1 to 1.5 slides per minute

– More is possible but may appear rushed– Two per minute will always be too many– Built-up slide sequence counts as one slide

• Audience need time to orient themselves• You will usually remember some extra things

that you want to say• Allow time for changeover and thanks to

chairs, organisers, colleagues etc

Key components of an oral presentation

• Context/ Introduction

• Method

• Results

• Summary

• Discussion points

Context/Introduction

• One slide to explain why study was done

• Include hypothesis or research question being tested

• Avoid excessive amounts of text

• Avoid long explanation of “iconic” cartoon

Methods

• How much do you really need to show?

• Use photographs if appropriate

• Essential detail only

• (unless primary purpose of presentation is to show a new method)

Which works better?

Methods

• Diesel exhaust was generated from an idling Volvo engine (built 1993), diluted with filtered ambient air and pumped into an exposure chamber in the next room.

• On control days the engine was left running but only filtered air was supplied to the chamber

• Particulate and gas concentrations were measured on a continuous basis

OR …...

Results

• Identify key results and stick to them

• Avoid data tables

• Design new figures to show key points

• Will be different from what is needed for publication!

Results: common OP faults

• This is a very busy slide, but if you look over here in the corner you can see…..

• As you can clearly see…..

• I’m sorry. I made this slide for another meeting, but if you ignore this part of the graph……

• Some of you at the back may not be able to read this

Laser Pointers/Highlights

• Use laser pointer sparingly

• Support your wrist

• Don’t “hosepipe”

• Consider using powerpoint features to draw audience to your key points: e.g.– ring highlights– building up graphs

Cytokine mRNA in BAL cells before and 24h after Ag challenge

Pre 24hPost

Allergy & FarmingRiedler et al Lancet 2001;358:1129-33

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Try explaining …...

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Ag

Epithelialdamage

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leukotrienes

Chemotaxis

Tryptase

MigrationActivation

IgE

Ag

Recruitment

Epithelialdamage

Mastcell

IgE

leukotrienes

Chemotaxis

Tryptase

MigrationActivation

IgE

AgB-cell

Recruitment

Epithelialdamage

Mastcell

IgE

leukotrienes

Chemotaxis

Tryptase

MigrationActivation

IgE

AgB-cell

IL-4

T-cell

Recruitment

Epithelialdamage

(via APC)

Mastcell

IgE

leukotrienes

Chemotaxis

Tryptase

MigrationActivation

IgE

AgB-cell

IL-5

IL-4

IL-4

T-cell

Recruitment

Epithelialdamage

(via APC)

Mastcell

IgE

Complex Built-up Figures

• Make whole figure

• Make several copies (and a reserve)

• Delete parts sequentially– Starting from the beginning– Highlight new bits as they appear ?

• Better than animating one slide

Summary

• Bullet points only

• Discussion points– acknowledge weaknesses– compare with previous knowledge– try to excite comments and interest– get help with writing up paper

Acknowledgements

• Can take a long time• Often excessive (this is not the Oscars!)• Often use up a large proportion of discussion

time – especially if your presentation or the whole session is running late

• Consider acknowledgements as part of title slide, or showing photo/names and thanking “everyone who helped with this project”

Oral presentation

• Plan to use your time wisely• Leave time for discussion• Prepare clear figures to show results • Use powerpoint features,

– but don’t overdo it

• Speak slowly - “Less is more”• Give audience some ideas for discussion• Rehearse with an honest friend