FAQs

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WHEN WILL THIS YEAR’S CONFERENCE TAKE PLACE?

The conference is on February 28th and March 1st, 2025. It will take place Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, both virtually and in-person. The location of the conference is to be confirmed.

 

DO YOU HAVE SOME GENERAL ABSTRACT WRITING TIPS?

  • Just write! Don’t be afraid to get started.
  • Abstract writing involves a lot of editing.
  • Clearly communicate your research and ensure that you are able to present it. 

 

WHAT SHOULD MY ABSTRACT LOOK LIKE?

Be sure to include:

  • An introduction (make your abstract introduction appealing to the reviewer and adjudicator! They will be reading several other abstracts, so you will want to stand out! Also, include why you are conducting research; convey its importance).
  • The research question
  • Methodology (be specific!)
  • Hypothesis
  • Results/findings (expected results are okay)
  • Conclusion (how does your research contribute to literature?)
  • We try our best to give your abstract to a reviewer in that field; if you’re writing about phonology, we try to have a phonologist read it. So unless you’re using a super obscure or new term, you’ll be okay not defining it.
  • If your research is not fully complete, thoroughly explain what you can and show your knowledge and any preliminary results.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask your supervisor for feedback.
  • The word limit is 500 words, including in-text citations. 

 

HOW ARE THE ABSTRACTS RANKED?

Professors and PhD students (among other faculty) will be the reviewers and adjudicators for the abstracts; they will be ranking them and providing feedback. They will present their personal opinions of the abstracts and will score them. LSURC will then pick for oral and poster presentations. If your abstract is selected, you may take the feedback and improve your research. Your research will be “officially” assessed during the final presentation at the conference.

 

WHAT ARE PROs AND CONs OF THE PRESENTATION METHODS?

If you have a supervisor, you may want to ask them for a recommendation for the method. Both oral and poster presentations will be presented in-person and there is also an online option for oral presentations. 

 

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

  • If you have less research (less than 10 minutes), this would be a better option.
  • Posters will be printed with question sessions in the breaks between the oral presentations.

 

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

  • Oral presentations will be livestreamed for attendees. You are allowed to use a PowerPoint presentation for support.  
  • There are fewer slots available (roughly 10-20 spots).

 

DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS?

For oral presentations, if using PowerPoint slides:

  • Aim for each slide to last 1 minute. Then you can tell approximately how long your presentation will be. 
  • Don’t overfill your slides with text. You want to do the explaining, not have your slides do it for you.

 

Some general tips:

  • Just from working on your research, you will come to a point in which you are confident of and familiar with the material you will be presenting on. This will enable you to present it without too much difficulty. Also, you will likely be the only person in the room who will know about your project.
  • Practice with your supervisors and/or others in the field, as well as with those who know nothing about the topic; you will be able to practise answering questions about your research.
  • Practise more than you think you need! Even once you get comfortable, practise 1 or 2 more times.
  • Prepare questions ahead of time. Have time ahead to anticipate what people might ask, and prepare for the scariest or most difficult questions. You can even have extra slides or cue cards for these questions. For example, you might have a slide with the demographics of your participants, or any figures that are hard to explain in words.
  • Don’t feel afraid to say:
    • “I don’t know, but here are my thoughts on this…”
    • “I don’t know. Let’s talk about this after the presentation; I would love to hear what you think.”

 

WHAT IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR FIRST CHOICE FOR A PRESENTATION METHOD?

If you apply to do an oral presentation and don’t get chosen, we will automatically consider you for a poster presentation and might offer it to you.

 

ARE IN-PERSON PRESENTATIONS AVAILABLE FOR STUDENTS OUTSIDE OF UBC VANCOUVER?

The conference is only being held in Vancouver; however, if you will be in Vancouver during the conference, let us know that you would like to present in person. If you will not be in Vancouver, you are welcome to present online and there are no obligations to come to Vancouver.

 

WILL WE  JUST BE PRESENTING TO PEOPLE WITH LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE?

Language touches many fields, disciplines, and backgrounds; therefore, multiple fields will be in attendance (such as engineering, computer science, general science, psychology, etc.). The attendees will be undergraduate & graduate students, and academics interested in the field/research.

 

WHO DO I CONTACT IF I HAVE QUESTIONS?

You can email us at ubc.lsurc@gmail.com.