Extended Writing & Research Skills: Preparing for conference presentations and editing your work

1.

Extended Writing & Research
Skills: Preparing for conference
presentations and editing your
work

2. Writing abstracts

An abstract is a short summary of a whole project. It differs from an introduction, which
may outline the structure of a project but does not include detailed findings.
Abstracts may appear at the beginning of a piece of academic writing, such as an
academic journal article, for example. They also appear in conference programmes. The
purpose in both cases is to give either the reader or the conference delegate a brief
overview of the contents of the article or presentation. The reader or delegate can then
make an informed decision about whether that text or presentation is going to be of
interest to them.
Written project abstract
You will develop your own abstract for the beginning of your own written project. It is best
to write the abstract when you have completed the first draft of your project, so this is the
appropriate time to begin. The length of an abstract can vary; for a 3,000-word essay, an
abstract of 100-150 words would be appropriate.

3. Features of abstracts as follow:

a) A general statement;
b) Essential background information;
c) The aims of the project;
d) An investigation into a particular topic or subject area;
e) The implementation of the investigation in a real-world situation;
f) How the text is organized;
g) Details of the research carried out by the writer;
h) What the results of the research suggest;
i) A thesis statement;
j) A definition.

4. Task # 2 Write an abstract for your project.

5. Conference abstracts

If you are participating in a conference, you will need to write a short abstract, of
60 words, for example, to appear in the programme. It will summarize the contents
of your presentation.
Before you write a conference abstract, you need to decide which aspect of your
project you will focus on. The time you have to give a presentation is limited, so
you will not be able to include everything. When writing a conference abstract,
think carefully about who your audience might be. Your abstract should focus on
the main purpose of the presentation.

6. Task # 4 Practise writing a conference abstract. Keep your abstract as brief as possible (max. 60 words)

7.

Preparing an oral presentation
There are various ways of remembering what you want to say, and the order you
want to say it in, when giving a presentation. For example, some presenters
prepare note cards, on which they write down the main points of their presentation
in the order they are going to discuss them. They write the notes clearly, with lots
of space between each point, and arrange the note cards in numerical order.

8.

9.

Preparing a poster presentation
The purpose of a poster is to present ideas clearly and concisely. The main point
of a poster should be immediately clear to the audience when they first see it, so
you need to think carefully about the impact. Make sure you are selective - if you
try to communicate too many ideas on a poster, your main idea will be lost.

10.

11. Guidelines for designing a poster

1. It should have a strong visual impact
1. Ideas should be clear and comprehensive
1. It should be easy for the audience to follow