NOTES ON THE ASSESSMENT OF POSTERS

There are two components to producing a good poster display, presentation and content, and you should strive for perfection in each. Consequently, when you have to assess the work of others you should examine the poster from these two points of view. These notes are designed to indicate the good (and bad) points you should look out for when peer assessing posters.

Presentation
1. Does the poster conform to the guidelines given for size? Or is it too big or too small?

2. General layout - does the poster ‘look good’ or is there a feeling or evidence that it has been hurriedly put together with little thought?

3. Is each section/sub-section appropriately labelled with a title? Are individual panels neatly arranged and are all lines square (particularly the edges of panels)?

4. Have computer-generated diagrams, text, headings been used wherever possible? Or has hand-written/hand-drawn material been submitted? 

5. Have suitable fonts and font sizes been used? Can you read the poster comfortably from a distance of about 1.5-2.0 m?

6. Have suitable colours been used? Has colour been used to distinguish separate sections? Are the colours too garish or are they complementary?

Content
1. Does the poster have a title and a list of contributors?

2. Is the work logically organised? Can you find your way around the poster in the correct way? Does each section follow on logically from what has gone on before?

3. Does the poster have an introduction and does it set the scene well? Does the poster have a summary or a conclusion so that you have something to ‘take away’ from having read the poster?

4. Are illustrations used and are these used to good effect, i.e. do they help to illustrate points in the text or are they there just to fill up space? Are all figures and tables referenced in the text and are sources referenced?

5. Are references provided? And are these references correctly formatted (in alphabetical order, and with author, date, title, etc.) and cited in the text?

6. Is the text too verbose? Are the sentences too long and convoluted? Is technical language used without explanation? Are there spelling mistakes? Is the work grammatically correct? Are there errors in punctuation?

7. Is the language at a suitable level, i.e. do you understand what the poster is about? Or does it read as though it has been copied out of a textbook? If the latter then it should be marked down and reported to the tutor.