Project #4: Research Poster Abstract

This short project focuses you on writing a research poster abstract—not a paper abstract. The
difference between the two is that a poster abstract is more focused on results (with a brief
mention of methods as the way to how the data was gathered) rather than an overall picture.
Typically, this is because a poster is a collection of experiments that are not complete enough for
a paper.

For this assignment, you are writing an abstract based off of the research poster provided in the
Project 4 Folder. It is important to remember that this poster uses fake data and is written at a
simplistic level to learn HOW to write a poster abstract.

Your word count is 200-500 words, a typical range for abstracts at conferences. Choose what
you emphasize well. Make sure you provide a few sentences (~2) providing context for the study
and highlighting the importance/significance of the research. The majority of the abstract should
focus on the method and results (~4-6 sentences total, mostly about results). Look at the posted
abstracts for examples of how to present the methods and results, whether it is methods and then
results or combining the two as you write. Finally, briefly state a clear conclusion of the findings
at the end of the abstract (1-2 sentences).

Use the posted abstracts as models to learn the style of writing an abstract. You must write this
as though you did the research. Therefore, you will use personal pronouns, typically second
person in research, so “we,” “us,” and “our.”

Use the model abstracts we discuss in class to guide what your final product should like. Spend
some time analyzing how the individual abstracts accomplish presenting information. There are
different styles. The abstract highlights the major points for a poster with the intent to entice
people to come see the full poster.

Consider your audience. Posters are presented at scientific conferences to scientists. You
wouldn’t need to explain in detail what immunohistochemistry was, you could simply say that
you used immunohistochemistry to obtain a result. You wouldn’t need to explain what polyuria
is because you could reasonably assume the audience would know that information. However,
You still need to define any acronyms as those are often field specific and it is not reasonable to
assume your audience would know them.

Finally, consider the poster. It has an introduction, a methods section, a results section, and a
conclusions section. An abstract is not detailed about any of these things because they all have
separate sections. The abstract is briefly mentioning all of them with an emphasis on the
findings, which is why scientists get together at conferences—to share their recent findings.

Follow the formatting rules. Include the header with your word count and audience. You are
required to double space your draft before you turn it in.

VIBS 310 Research Poster Abstract Handout by Micah J. Waltz is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
You won’t have any in-text citations in the abstract or a reference page. For this assignment, I
know you are writing it about the poster.
Project drafts without the indicated required word count will not be accepted for grading. This
means that students will not be able to submit a final version of the paper for grading, resulting
in being unable to pass the class as per the syllabus policies.

VIBS 310 Research Poster Abstract Handout by Micah J. Waltz is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.