Support and guidance for undergraduate conference delegates

Writing an Abstract for a Conference
Presenting your Research
Verbal Presentations
Poster Presentations
Networking at Conferences

Writing an Abstract for a Conference

At a conference delegates may be provided with conference abstracts ahead of or during the conference to help them decide which sessions they want to attend. Your abstract will almost certainly be used to help conference organisers decide whether or not your paper will be accepted for presentation at the event. Learning to write an abstract for your research work, whether for a conference, an academic journal or a research database, is therefore a key skill.

Most abstracts are about 100-250 words long and offer a window in to your research so that others can learn whether they want to know more. As such, your abstract needs to be accurate, interesting and relevant in order to ensure that (the right) people engage with your work. Writing a good abstract can be as difficult, if not more so, than writing the conference paper itself. I've got all this brilliant and well-presented research! How am I going to sum it up in 200 words??

There are various techniques you can use to write an effective abstract. One of them is to write out your conference paper first and then go through your paper and summarise each paragraph in one line. Then use all these lines to form the basis of your abstract. Don't use the lines word for word and just run them together, but use them to shape your abstract. This technique means that there is a logical chronology to your abstract, which will match your presentation, and ensures that your abstract doesn't suddenly contain new information you forget to present at the conference.

One important thing to remember about an abstract is that it shouldn't be a 'teaser' like the blurb on the back of a book. Your abstract should be a summary of your whole paper – what you did, why you did it, how you did it, what your results were and (if relevant) where your research is going from here.

Alongside your abstract the title of your paper is also important. For guidance on how to create an effective title please refer to the Reinvention website.

IATL Method

FIRST, consider four key questions about the research project: The WHY? The WHAT? The SO WHAT? The NOW WHAT?

THEN, create the final abstract by compiling the responses to the key questions, considering the following through the editing process.

Is anything missing that was integral to the project? Perhaps there’s an aspect of the research that didn’t fit neatly into the four answers. Now add any important elements that were missed.
Has the combination of the four responses produced some repetition? If so, streamline the abstract and remove any extraneous material.
Are some transitional phrases needed between the answers to the questions? Think about how to guide the reader through the abstract and the research process. Abstracts should inform but they can also be enjoyable for the audience to read. Add transitional words, phrases, or sentences to clearly connect the different aspects of your project.
How accessible is the abstract to an interdisciplinary audience? Subject-specific language is used in all disciplines, however, at an interdisciplinary conference, it’s important that the work is accessible to all. Reduce the use of jargon where possible and seek advice outside the field to check the abstract for intelligibility.
Don’t forget about the title! Titles are important. At the conference, a great title will attract audience members to the presentation and increase their engagement with the research. And, beyond the conference, a good title enhances the discoverability of the research online, increasing the chances of being cited by other scholars. Make sure the title reflects the project accurately and includes key words that can help others discover the research.

The WHY?

The WHY: Why are you researching this topic?

This question asks you to think about why you are researching a specific topic and what makes it important. Consider what type of contextual information would be needed for an undergraduate in a different discipline to understand your study. This may require you to locate it within a particular research field and outline what is known in the academic literature about the issue to date. If there is a research problem or a gap in knowledge or literature that has motivated your work, you should describe it here. You should think deeply about what your specific research question is and outline it. In other words, use this introductory section to provide your reader with the context of your research, where it fits within the existing academic literature, and identify the question your research is addressing. Put simply, provide a rationale for why your project is worthwhile.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 75 words.

The WHAT?

The WHAT: How did you research this topic, and what did you discover?

Your answer to this question describes the research that you’ve undertaken. What did you do and how did you do it? If you were one member of a larger research group, what was your contribution to the project? Did you employ a particular methodology or analyse data using a theoretical framework of some kind? Make sure that the reader understands what specific materials you’ve examined during the course of your research (for example, literature, pre-existing survey data, scientific specimens). Here, you can also outline any research tools used in your study (for example, software, equipment, analysis techniques). Importantly, your answer to this question also reports the results of your research. Describe the research findings you discovered in undertaking your research project and what you will discuss at the conference (you want to ‘hook’ the audience in, without giving everything away). Were you able to answer your research questions, and did you discover any incidental, but important, findings?

In other words, use this section to tell the reader what you did, how you did it and what you discovered.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 75 words.

The SO WHAT?

The SO WHAT: What do your findings mean, and why do they matter?

You’ve reported the results of your research study in answer to the previous question. Now you need to tell the reader what these findings mean and why they matter. How do they make a significant contribution to knowledge in your field? How might they impact wider society? It’s here that you can provide answers to your research questions, if you have used them.

In other words, use this section to communicate your overall argument and why this research is significant to the reader. This is the ‘aha!’ moment, when the reader comes to understand the true value of your research.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 50 words.

The NOW WHAT?

The NOW WHAT: What comes next?

Finally, think about the future implications and relevance of your research. What comes next? Have your discoveries opened new lines of research enquiry? How might others—in or outside your discipline—respond to your research and progress it? Are you planning on developing further studies in this area, or translating it into practice in some way? Is there a group of people who could benefit from your research? Mention your plans: are you considering founding a startup, or will you communicate your findings to practitioners in your field, for example?

In other words, use this concluding section to share the potential future applications of your research with the reader. Leave them in no doubt of the relevance of your project.

We suggest you answer this question in approximately 50 words.

Presenting your research

The IATL Method is based on research by Day and Peters (1994), "Quality Indicators in Academic Publishing", Library Review, 43, 7

If your work originated as an essay, you will have been given the title so you can just get started with addressing the question. This is not the case when presenting your own research, so you need to start by saying why your subject is important and why you want to study it. Don’t be tempted to launch into your presentation saying what you did and what the results were, offer some context, give some background and let your audience know what your research questions were and why they are important.

You can then move on to what you did. The way you tackle this will depend on your research and your subject area but you should ensure that your presentation progresses logically and doesn’t jump around. Let your audience know how you went about your research, why you decided to conduct the interviews / experiments / analysis that you did, who / what was involved in your research, what were your results and what was your analysis of those results. Always have your audience in mind when you're preparing your presentation and ensure you are doing all you can to help them understand your research.

Next, you need to tell your audience what your results mean and what your analysis of them has shown. Explicitly, what are the answers to your research questions? What are your conclusions? What effect has this had / could it have on your discipline? You don't want you leave your audience wondering why they attended your presentation and what they have gained - asking 'so what?'.

And finally, 'Now what?' – have your discoveries opened up further questions for research, or have you produced something which is self-contained and doesn't need further study? Are you continuing with your research? Other people listening to your presentation might have been inspired to carry out their own research so let them know what further questions you think your research has raised.

You will only have a short time to present your research, whether orally or by poster, so although we recommend covering all of the aspects mentioned above you will necessarily only touch on some areas while going into more detail on others. Please remember to acknowledge the support or involvement of members of staff in your research if appropriate.

Verbal Presentations

Presentations at many conferences should be 15 minutes long with a further 5 minutes to allow for questions. You can use PowerPoint or Prezi to support your talk but do think imaginatively and creatively about how to engage your audience. Don’t be afraid of getting them involved or presenting without technological support!

There are some excellent websites offering further information on planning and delivering an effective presentation, as well as what visual aids to use, how to deal with questions and how to get your message across succinctly:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/scs/elearning/presentations/
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1639/Oral-presentations.html
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/15261/Preparation-for-presentations.html

You might also want to look at the presentations carried out at the previous meetings of the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR) or the International Conference for Undergraduate Research (ICUR) and decide for yourself what the presenters did effectively and what you might want to bring into your own presentation.

Poster Presentations

Features of an effective poster design include:

Readable in 10 minutes max (5 minutes is better!)
Accessible and easily understood by a non-specialist audience
Informative, not overwhelming
Carefully chosen priorities – foreground key points
Minimal text
Clear structure (abstract / introduction / main body / conclusion)
Clear navigation (headings / number / colour / layout)
Overall cohesion (text linked to images and carefully co-ordinated colours and fonts
Professionally produced
A useful guide to producing a poster can be found here.

Additional Advice

Don’t justify the text – it's harder to read
Consider line spacing – white space
Use sub-headings (headings in bold)
Limit blocks of text (no more than 10 sentences)
Use only 2 fonts for your poster
Use correct citation for your discipline
Be aware of your colour choices - colourblindness affects 8% of males. Run it through ‘Vischeck’: http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php

Font

Title: 60 – 72 point
Headings: make bold, 36-44 point
Body text: about 24-32 point
Avoid serif fonts (Book Antiqua, Times New Roman)
You can include the Warwick Logo which can be found at: https://warwick.ac.uk/about/brand/brand-guidelines/logos/

Presentation

Handouts are allowed if they will help you explain your research
Plan a brief talk in case you get a small audience
Plan prompts for discussion
Look at example posters for example from BCUR 2012

Networking at Conferences

You might want to look at the links below for some useful information on making the most of your time at an academic conference:

An introvert’s guide to networking:

http://careersblog.warwick.ac.uk/2013/02/28/an-introverts-guide-to-networking/

Networking advice:

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1237/Networking-.html

If you need any further help and support please contact Emma Barker ( ).

All Warwick students presenting at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR), at the International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR), and at the World Congress on Undergraduate Research (WorldCUR) will be invited to attend a number of training sessions to help support you with everything from training on intercultural competency to help improving your presentation skills.

Email to find out more.