Senior Research & Creative Poster Project

Graduating seniors are required to complete a Research/Creative Poster with an abstract

You must have completed a research or creative project by the last semester of your senior year in one of your many courses as part of your studies here at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  This can be accomplished using an Honors Contract, undertaking a creative project that you research in one of your classes or research work with a professor or graduate student.  It can also be your undergraduate thesis work.  Please note:  The work may have been done at any time during your undergraduate studies. The senior project is not meant to be additional research, but a showcase of research you have already done. Think "Copy/Paste what I already have done in one of my courses into a formatted poster with some pics I found that accentuate my point, and honors prints it out for me."

Abstract: Posters should contain a thesis statement or creative statement, an explanation of your research or creative process, a picture of your work, and a summary or conclusion of your work.  The poster will be made here at Honors and will be exhibited during the Honors Graduation Cording Ceremony.

Senior Poster by Alex Boone Deshotel

Guidelines for an Honors Research Project

1.  What is your goal in this research?  What is your hypothesis about what you are researching?
Think about what you are researching and why.  Make a statement about what you believe is true about your subject.  What information do you have that you can use to back up your statement?

2.  Abstract:  An abstract is a paragraph or two which states your hypothesis, discusses how you researched it and your conclusions.  If you need examples you can ask for them in the Honors Office.

3.  You should use a method in researching.  Make sure your research and your findings are relevant to your hypothesis.

4.  Your results and conclusions should tie back into your hypothesis and actually prove what you believed to be true – or you might find it was not true and you must present why it wasn’t true.

5.  You will need adequate support for your conclusions.

6.  Do not hesitate to ask questions.  Don’t allow what one author/researcher says to stop your investigation.

7.  Don’t forget to list your sources.

8.  Your submission should be landscape orientation of 24" X 36".

9. Avoid using the words "I", "my", "me", and other personalized pronouns.

10.  Keep your momentum going.  Don’t procrastinate – it’s a real killer.

NOTE: Nursing students may use their group class poster. They must change the "Literature Review" section to a "References" section and provide the references for the poster there.

Example of Senior Research Project, Kayla Newman

Example of Senior Research Project, Elizabeth Larmann

Guidelines for Honors Creative Projects

1.  What are you investigating in your work?  What influences your work?  Is it another person’s work?  Is it a particular school of dance or design?  Are you breaking away from some formal idea of dance or design?

2.  What is your approach to your work?  What is your methodology? 

3.  How is your work similar or different?

4.  What does your work exhibit about your investigation?

5.  Abstract:  What did you explore with your creative project?  What new or different information did you find after doing your project?  So, like any research, you have an hypothesis, research (your work) and a conclusion!  These ideas should be put into a paragraph or two to explain what you are presenting.

6.  There should be pictures of your work for your poster.  Visual aids are very important for people to understand the arts.

7.  Your submission should be landscape orientation of  24" X 36".

8. Avoid using the words "I", "my", "me", and other personalized pronouns.

Example of Creative Senior Poster Project, Erika Cuzdey

Example of Creative Senior Poster Project, James P. Mallory

Templates and Designs

MS Word and PowerPoint have free templates that you can use to create your research poster, below you will find useful links.

Free Research Poster Design Downloads

Instructions for Turning In Poster Project

1) Create your poster in Powerpoint and DO NOT reformat it as .pdf or .jpeg or any other format. 

2) Name the file this: Student Name Poster Semester Year.ppt.

       Example: Name Poster SP 2019.pptx

3) Send .ppt or .pptx file (or if approved .pdf) as an attachment via email to honors@louisiana.edu, SUBJECT: Senior Poster for "insert your name".