Academic writing at a glance : techniques used by L2 writers to capture and hold their readers' attention at a poster session

Barnett, Penelope; Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen

Publication type:	Conference other
Type of review:	Not specified
Title:	Academic writing at a glance : techniques used by L2 writers to capture and hold their readers' attention at a poster session
Authors:	Barnett, Penelope Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen
Conference details:	Tagung des Forums Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Winterthur, 9-10 June 2006
Issue Date:	Jun-2006
Language:	English
Subjects:	Genre; Criteria; Poster; Academic
Subject (DDC):	418: Standard language usage 808: Rhetoric and writing
Abstract:	Many Swiss universities offer their students courses on writing research articles in English. Other academic genres, for example posters, are rarely taught, even though students are often required to prepare posters in English. For guidance, novice researchers rely on their supervisors or the lists of "dos and don'ts" they find in style guides. Although some of the conventions suggested in style guides are adopted by many poster writers, the final products differ greatly in their visual impact. In this study, we investigated 30 posters created, displayed and peer-evaluated by L2 PhD students at an ecology conference, to identify ways in which visual elements combine with academic language and the organisation of ideas to capture and hold the attention of potential readers. Using criteria that define semiotic force, we analysed (1) the posters that were rated most highly by the conference participants, and (2) a selection of posters that received no positive ratings. We suggest that the interaction of visual, linguistic and organisational elements may have been overlooked or taken for granted by the L1 writers of style guides. Our findings offer insights into the conference poster as a multimodal genre and supplement existing guidelines on creating posters.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/2974
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	Applied Linguistics
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Translation and Interpreting (IUED)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Angewandte Linguistik

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Barnett, P., & Ehrensberger-Dow, M. (2006, June). Academic writing at a glance : techniques used by L2 writers to capture and hold their readers’ attention at a poster session. Tagung Des Forums Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Winterthur, 9-10 June 2006.

Barnett, P. and Ehrensberger-Dow, M. (2006) ‘Academic writing at a glance : techniques used by L2 writers to capture and hold their readers” attention at a poster session’, in Tagung des Forums Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Winterthur, 9-10 June 2006.

P. Barnett and M. Ehrensberger-Dow, “Academic writing at a glance : techniques used by L2 writers to capture and hold their readers’ attention at a poster session,” in Tagung des Forums Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Winterthur, 9-10 June 2006, Jun. 2006.

BARNETT, Penelope und Maureen EHRENSBERGER-DOW, 2006. Academic writing at a glance : techniques used by L2 writers to capture and hold their readers‘ attention at a poster session. In: Tagung des Forums Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Winterthur, 9-10 June 2006. Conference presentation. Juni 2006

Barnett, Penelope, and Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow. 2006. “Academic Writing at a Glance : Techniques Used by L2 Writers to Capture and Hold Their Readers’ Attention at a Poster Session.” Conference presentation. In Tagung Des Forums Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Winterthur, 9-10 June 2006.

Barnett, Penelope, and Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow. “Academic Writing at a Glance : Techniques Used by L2 Writers to Capture and Hold Their Readers’ Attention at a Poster Session.” Tagung Des Forums Wissenschaftliches Schreiben, Winterthur, 9-10 June 2006, 2006.