Hi, I've been asked to prepare a proposal for a doctoral colloquim at a conference and was asked for 3 sides all inclusive!

now my previous conference wanted 25 sides max!

i've never done 3 sides.....should i omit references then? by default the details must be cut much shorter....how can I make a point and aqueeze a whole 2.5 years in 3 sides?

help!! thanks!

I think it is def doable as slides are meant to be an aide memoire and not a text version of everything you are goign to say so just list the headings and have notes of what you would say under each.

For my formal PhD proposal I was restricted to 2 sides A4 maximum including headings, references, everything. It is doable.

I agree but this is not an aide, it is a proposal to be sent in order to be accepted to the conference . they will read it alone, it is not my presentation.

They suggest no spacing, 12 font, and 3 sides (not pages, sides)....including all tables and i assume no space for reference lists?....

It's a summary of what you intend to present, so it only needs to be short - most of my submissions have been a max of 250 words. Are you confusing the actual paper with a proposal here? There's no way a conference organiser would have the time to wade through 25 sides of writing for each proposal/presentation. Just give the overarching summary of what your paper/presentation will cover - any particular methodologies if appropriate, what the key points of your paper is etc - effectively, it's an abstract for your paper.

Yea I agree with Vaibabe here, mine have all been around the 250-350 word mark. Never as much as 3 sides, so you've got plenty of space. Think of it as prep for your thesis abstract, you will have to be able to distill the key points of your PhD into a few sentences at the end anyway! Just put down the key reasons your research is necessary, what the methods used were, your main results and the implications of these. And it's just the most important and interesting information you want to include, especially if it's for a presentation abstract.

Agree with what everyone else has said - abstracts for conference acceptance are often 200 words. You just need to put in the key points.

thanks! well i've been given a 3 side guideline so I just wrote 3 sides.....of course there is no space for a reference list but I still added references in the text. is that wrong?
i think it adds some validity......especially as 3 sides is not long but still not 200 words.....

thanks! well i've been given a 3 side guideline so I just wrote 3 sides.....of course there is no space for a reference list but I still added references in the text. is that wrong?
i think it adds some validity......especially as 3 sides is not long but still not 200 words.....