Brigidine College Library

Genre Writing

Constructing a Poster

DEFINITION

A poster is a visual communications tool – almost like the original PowerPoint! It should be simple and attractive, tell a story, have a minimum of clutter, and have a maximum of relevant, to-the-point, informative statements.

PURPOSE

A poster is designed to

Engage people in conversation and

stimulate discussion

Get the author’s main points across to

as many people as possible

Posters may be

Informative (e.g. The Life Cycle of a Cow)

Educational (e.g. What Your Local City Council Does For You)

Persuasive (e.g. Stop Tree Clearing Now!)

Posters operate on many levels. They are:

A source of information

A conversation starter

A summary of your work

Effective posters

Deliver a clear message

Are highly visual and attractive to the eye

Can be read easily from 1.5-2 metres away

AUDIENCE

You need to determine who the audience will be, as it will shape your poster by determining its tone, content and language:

Specialists only (for your teacher and other class members, where you can

assume a high level of knowledge and use jargon, acronyms and technical language if all understand your particular topic).

Wide-ranging (specialists as well as a general audience – minimise jargon and

simplify language).

Very general audience (you cannot assume familiarity with your topic’s specific terms and concepts, and must explain clearly even basic terms – so eliminate jargon and use common terms).

TEXTUAL FEATURES

Content

Start with an overall idea. Turn it into a succinct or brief message, or answer the questions you’ve been asked, and support it with a combination of images (drawings, photographs, graphs, charts, diagrams, clip art) and short blocks of text.

If the purpose of your poster is persuasive, decide what is the ONE thing you want your audience to learn. Focus on this message through the poster. If it doesn’t focus on your message or topic, leave it out.

Text should be large and easy to read from 2 metres, so use appropriate handwriting or fonts. If word processing text, use font size 36 (at least) for titles or headings; 20 or more for ordinary text. Title should be at least 60 mm high. Centre and highlight or bold headings to make them stand out. Don’t use more than 2 font types though, as they are distracting. (Times New Roman and Arial are easy on the eye). Also be consistent - same font style, same size etc for headings of equal importance; and if you use bold lettering to emphasise a point in one area, then do not use italics in others. 1.5 line spacing is also better, and remember black text is clean and easy to read. Coloured text is more difficult to read.

Content needs to be correct, well-organised and up-to-date, but don’t overwhelm with too much – either text or graphics. Break the text into 50 words or less in specific sections.

Carefully plan, draft, edit and construct your poster.

Check your spelling – mistakes look dreadful on public display and detract from the intelligence of your poster.

Style

A catchy heading or title is required in order to attract the reader’s attention.

This will communicate the maximum amount of information in minimal space, and make your key messages quicker and easier to read.

Use headings and sub-headings to highlight particular aspects of your message/

theme.

Bullet points may help to convey information more easily under sub-headings

than full sentences.

Language

Use language appropriate to the audience ie. the more ‘expert’ the audience, the more specialised the language you can use, including jargon.

CONTEXTUAL FEATURES

Construction

Assemble all the requirements for the poster:

Poster cardboard, glue, scissors, ruler, pencil, bluetack, erasers, textas, razor blades etc.

Data requirements – text (written or word processed), pictures, tables, photos, diagrams

Organise any outside agencies in advance – photographic services, picture

sources, statistics

Style and Layout

Posters need to convey information, while remaining aesthetically pleasing to attract and keep the attention of the reader. You need to be very selective with this information, which must be broken up into logically-flowing groups or categories which will make the most sense to your audience and still fit naturally into the columns of the poster.

Size and proportion are vital. A balanced mixture of text and graphics is most appealing. Graphics should never overwhelm the text or distract from whatever content or message is being communicated, so don’t make the layout too dense with lots of typing. Leave some space in between the writing either as empty ‘white space’ or as space for logos or pictures (some say up to 50%!) This makes it easier for people to read.

Colours should be co-ordinated with text and graphics to make a visually pleasing whole. Use a light-coloured background and dark letters for contrast. A coloured backing card for each sheet on the poster can also be effective. Don’t use more than 2-3 colours, however.

You should prepare a mock-up design on a piece of paper, as you have such limited space. Decide what will go where. You can draw boxes to indicate graphics, and lines to indicate text. Space everything out neatly.

When you have everything assembled, use Bluetack or similar to arrange your material on the poster. Make sure the layout allows enough ‘white’ space, and that text and graphics have a pleasing balance. Then fix or add your material to the poster.

Here are some possible layout options, remembering that people approach new information in a set sequence: they look from left to right, and from centre to top to bottom. Don’t fight this ‘reader gravity’!

Poster Layout: Option 1

Arrange the content in a series of columns (2-3 probably best). You could link the

columns with arrows (or coloured yarn) if you need them read in a particular order.

Title

(COLUMN 1)

(COLUMN 2)

(COLUMN 3)

Intro/Heading 1

Supporting text

Heading 3

Supporting text

Heading 4

Supporting text

Heading 2

Supporting text

Heading 5/ Conclusions

Supporting text

Poster Layout: Option 2

Arrange the content radiating out from the centre

Graphics

These should enhance the text ie. be relevant to the subject, not just pretty

pictures you found somewhere.

They can be drawings, photographs, illustrations, pictures, clip art (minimal, and only if relevant), diagrams, graphs, cartoons or a personally-designed logo.

All graphics (except clip art or logos) should be labelled, and all should show

relevance to the text.

Where possible, reinterpret text as charts, graphs or illustrations.

However, graphics should not dominate, as text is the most important. A rough guide: 1/3 of the whole?? (Check with your teacher). And make sure the size of a particular graphic is not disproportionately large compared to the rest of the graphics or text of the poster.

If a graphic is too large or too small, use the photocopier to reduce/increase size. Black and white images can communicate your point just as well as colour. Computer graphics can be cropped and enlarged to focus attention on the significant details.

RUBRIC

A rubric is a breakdown of the various elements of a task and a summary of a student’s level of mastery of each of these components. Your teacher may indicate your level of competency in the construction of a poster through a rubric such as the following:

CATEGORY	EXCELLENT	GOOD	SATISFACTORY	NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
Title and headings	Title and headings can be read very easily from a distance, describe content very well and are very creative.	Title and headings can be read easily from a distance, describe content well and are quite creative.	Title and headings can be read from a distance and attempt to describe content.	Title and headings are not easily read from a distance and/or do not describe the content.
Content	All facts in the poster are accurate and relevant to the topic or theme.	Almost all the facts in the poster are accurate and relevant to the topic or theme.	The facts in the poster are generally accurate and relevant to the topic or theme.	There are an unacceptable number of inaccurate and/or irrelevant facts in the poster.
Writing - Organisation	Each section in the poster has a clear beginning, middle and end.	Almost all the sections in the poster have a clear beginning, middle and end.	Most sections of the poster have a clear beginning, middle and end.	Few sections of the poster have a clear beginning, middle and end.
Writing - Language	The language is very appropriate for the audience, and there are no spelling, grammatical, punctuation or capitalisation errors.	The language is appropriate for the audience, and there are almost no spelling, grammatical, punctuation or capitalisation errors.	The language is generally appropriate for the audience; there are a few spelling, grammatical, punctuation and capitalisation errors.	The language is not appropriate for the audience, and/or there are an unacceptable number of spelling, grammatical, punctuation and capitalisation errors.
Graphics (pictures, photographs clip art, drawings, illustrations, diagrams, graphs etc)	Graphics are varied, match and support the text perfectly, and there is an excellent balance between text and graphics.	Graphics are varied, match and support the text well, and there is a good balance between text and graphics.	Graphics generally match the text, and there is an acceptable balance between the text and the graphics.	Graphics do not match the text, and/or there is an imbalance between the text and the graphics (either too few or too many).
Visual appeal	There is an exceptionally creative and pleasing unity of colour, style and layout.	There is a creative and pleasing unity of colour, style and layout.	There is an overall unity of colour, style and layout.	There is a disunity in colour, style and layout and/or the poster is incomplete.