The academic poster genre. Friend or foe? (original) (raw)

2016, The Routledge Handbook of English for Academic Purposes

Almost all students or novice researchers, upon entering the academic world, know that eventually they will be invited to prepare and present an academic poster. This task is often met with mixed feelings not only because it is often the entry point into academic life, but also because what the genre entails is not always clear to the novice author (Hay & Thomas, 1999). The poster session itself is often met with mixed reviews both from the participants as well as the viewers, because of several physical limitations, and the fact that still today it considered less prestigious to present at a poster session than at a paper session (Swales & Feak, 2000; Swales, 2004). De Simone et al. (2001), for example, have noted that the traditional poster presentation can at times be frustrating for authors and can leave them, as well as the audience, with a sense of incompleteness. This negative evaluation of the genre leads De Simone et al. (ibid.) to consider the academic poster as a communication tool that is frequently inadequate for the message it carries. Probably triggering this idea is the fact that each poster generally attracts a limited number of viewers and sometimes not enough attention is given to the poster session by conference organizers. A poster presenter does not have the advantage of having a committed audience and has to compete with other presenters for space, visibility and attention (Morin, 1996a, 1996b), and if poster presenters do manage to attract someone's attention, they have to accept the fact that in most cases, the interaction will be brief and superficial; a frustrating experience to say the least. Sometimes instead, the interaction might carry on longer than expected, which is at the same time rewarding and challenging. The possibility to interact personally with an author, with no time limitations, in fact means that viewers are given the chance to pose numerous questions and comments which, if particularly challenging, might put the poster presenter into difficulty. If paper presenters have to endure five or ten minutes of question time, poster presenters are asked to remain available and interact with viewers for one or two hours at a time, sometimes even longer. Staying alert and attentive for such a long time can be tiresome and stressful. Fortunately, as mentioned before, this smaller arena is also traditionally more informal than other sessions. This colloquial, almost intimate aspect of the poster presentation is what makes the genre so unique and challenging at the same time.