Introduction Coherence

Upon comparing the above two passages, you probably discovered that you preferred the second passage because it sounded smoother; that is, the ideas seemed to flow together well. The first passage has a very good progression from general to specific, yet there is only one idea in many of the sentences, causing the passage to sound choppy. Moreover, the control of point of view and pronouns is weak, causing confusion about who the audience is. The revision, however, shows more complexity in that the ideas are organized into complex and compound-complex sentences, creating a smoother flow of ideas from one sentence to another. As a result, the second passage is easier to understand at both the general and specific levels. Moreover, the relevance of the example is enhanced with improvement in vocabulary use. The control of pronouns and point of view and the repetition of key content words reinforce the writer's opinion about travel, making the example more relevant.

This book will provide practice with coherence devices to teach you how to make your writing sound fluent and cohesive. Learning effective coherence devices will enable you to improve your writing at both the sentence and paragraph levels.

"To cohere" means "to stick together"; "to be connected naturally or logically, by a common principle; to be consistent"; and "to become or stay united in action; to be in accord." Effective English writing is coherent; that is, the sentences follow each other smoothly and logically. In addition, the relationships between the ideas in the composition are clear to the reader. For example, the reader is able to locate the main ideas and sort out the examples. The time relationships and other forms of chronological order (steps, stages) are also clear. Old ideas link with new ideas, and pronouns are used correctly. Vocabulary, moreover, is well chosen to aid in the development of the content at every level.

(Adapted from http://www.uefap.com/writing/exercise/parag/paragex12.htm)

Ex. 4. Use the previous text to answer the following questions.

1. Can you comment on the expression «it sounds smoother»?

2. What synonyms can you give to the expression «it sounds smoother»?

3. What devices make the second passage more relevant?

4. What does the term «to cohere» mean?

5. Can you give your comments on the expression «Effective English writing is coherent»?

6. What are the characteristic features of effective academic writing from the point of view of coherence?

Introduction (continuation)

It is the responsibilities of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how various parts of the paragraph are connected. These connections can be made explicit grammatically and lexically by the use of different reference words. Every text has a structure. It is not just a random collection of sentences. The parts that make up the text are related in a meaningful way to each other. In order to make these relationships in the text clear, it is necessary to show how the sentences are related. Words like "it", "this", "that", "here", "there" etc. refer to other parts of the text. You need to understand how to use these connections or links.

There are four main types of links used in academic texts: reference, ellipsis and substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion.

Reference

Certain items of language in English have the property of reference. That is, they do not have meaning themselves, but they refer to something else for their meaning.

Example. The scientific study of memory began in the early 1870s when a German philosopher, Hermann Ebbinghaus, came up with the revolutionary idea that memory could be studied experimentally. In doing so he broke away from a 2000-year-old tradition that firmly assigned the study of memory to the philosopher rather than to the scientist. He argued that the philosophers had come up with a wide range of possible interpretations of memory but had produced no way of deciding which amongst these theories offered the best explanation of memory. He aimed to collect objective experimental evidence of the way in which memory worked in the hope that this would allow him to choose between the various theories.

In this text "he" and "him" refers to "Hermann Ebbinghaus". In order to create such a text, you need to use these words correctly in the text.

Example. These theories all stem from some underlying assumptions about people. To a large extent unproven, they tend to represent the dominant mood or climate of opinion at that time. Schein has classified them as follows, and it is interesting to note that the categories follow each other in a sort of historical procession, starting from the time of the industrial revolution.

Other words used in this way are "him", "it", "this", "that", "these", "those", "here", "there" etc.