define coherence in an essay

Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, coherence – how to achieve coherence in writing.

• © 2023 by Joseph M. Moxley - University of South Florida

Coherence refers to a style of writing where ideas, themes, and language connect logically, consistently, and clearly to guide the reader's understanding. By mastering coherence , alongside flow , inclusiveness , simplicity,  and unity , you'll be well-equipped to craft professional or academic pieces that engage and inform effectively. Acquire the skills to instill coherence in your work and discern it in the writings of others.

What is Coherence?

Coherence in writing refers to the logical connections and consistency that hold a text together, making it understandable and meaningful to the reader. Writers create coherence in three ways:

• logical consistency
• conceptual consistency
• linguistic consistency.

What is Logical Consistency?

• For instance, if they argue, “If it rains, the ground gets wet,” and later state, “It’s raining but the ground isn’t wet,” without additional explanation, this represents a logical inconsistency.

What is Conceptual Consistency?

• For example, if you are writing an essay arguing that regular exercise has multiple benefits for mental health, each paragraph should introduce and discuss a different benefit of exercise, all contributing to your main argument. Including a paragraph discussing the nutritional value of various foods, while interesting, would break the conceptual consistency, as it doesn’t directly relate to the benefits of exercise for mental health.

What is Linguistic Consistency?

• For example, if a writer jumps erratically between different tenses or switches point of view without clear demarcation, the reader might find it hard to follow the narrative, leading to a lack of linguistic coherence.

Related Concepts: Flow ; Given to New Contract ; Grammar ; Organization ; Organizational Structures ; Organizational Patterns ; Sentence Errors

Why Does Coherence Matter?

Coherence is crucial in writing as it ensures that the text is understandable and that the ideas flow logically from one to the next. When writing is coherent, readers can easily follow the progression of ideas, making the content more engaging and easier to comprehend. Coherence connects the dots for the reader, linking concepts, arguments, and details in a clear, logical manner.

Without coherence, even the most interesting or groundbreaking ideas can become muddled and lose their impact. A coherent piece of writing keeps the reader’s attention, demonstrates the writer’s control over their subject matter, and can effectively persuade, inform, or entertain. Thus, coherence contributes significantly to the effectiveness of writing in achieving its intended purpose.

How Do Writers Create Coherence in Writing?

• Your thesis statement serves as the guiding star of your paper. It sets the direction and focus, ensuring all subsequent points relate back to this central idea.
• Acknowledge and address potential counterarguments to strengthen your position and add depth to your writing.
• Use the genres and organizational patterns appropriate for your rhetorical situation . A deductive structure (general to specific) is often effective, guiding the reader logically through your argument. Yet different disciplines may privilege more inductive approaches , such as law and philosophy.
• When following a given-to-new order, writers move from what the reader already knows to new information. In formal or persuasive contexts, writers are careful to vet new information for the reader following information literacy laws and conventions .
• Strategic repetition of crucial terms and your thesis helps your readers follow your main ideas and evidence for claims 
• While repetition is useful, varying language with synonyms can prevent redundancy and keep the reader engaged.
• Parallelism in sentences can provide rhythm and clarity, making complex ideas easier to follow.
• Consistent use of pronouns avoids confusion and helps in maintaining a clear line of thought.
• Arrange your ideas in a sequence that naturally builds from one point to the next, ensuring each paragraph flows smoothly into the next .
• Signposting , or using phrases that indicate what’s coming next or what just happened, can help orient the reader within your argument.
• Don’t bother repeating your argument in your conclusion. Prioritize conciseness. Yet end with a call to action or appeal to kairos and ethos .

Recommended Resources

• Organization
• Organizational Patterns

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

Suggested Edits

• Please select the purpose of your message. * - Corrections, Typos, or Edits Technical Support/Problems using the site Advertising with Writing Commons Copyright Issues I am contacting you about something else
• Your full name
• Your email address *
• Page URL needing edits *
• Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Other Topics:

Citation - Definition - Introduction to Citation in Academic & Professional Writing

• Joseph M. Moxley

Explore the different ways to cite sources in academic and professional writing, including in-text (Parenthetical), numerical, and note citations.

Collaboration - What is the Role of Collaboration in Academic & Professional Writing?

Collaboration refers to the act of working with others or AI to solve problems, coauthor texts, and develop products and services. Collaboration is a highly prized workplace competency in academic...

Genre may reference a type of writing, art, or musical composition; socially-agreed upon expectations about how writers and speakers should respond to particular rhetorical situations; the cultural values; the epistemological assumptions...

Grammar refers to the rules that inform how people and discourse communities use language (e.g., written or spoken English, body language, or visual language) to communicate. Learn about the rhetorical...

Information Literacy - Discerning Quality Information from Noise

Information Literacy refers to the competencies associated with locating, evaluating, using, and archiving information. In order to thrive, much less survive in a global information economy — an economy where information functions as a...

Mindset refers to a person or community’s way of feeling, thinking, and acting about a topic. The mindsets you hold, consciously or subconsciously, shape how you feel, think, and act–and...

Rhetoric: Exploring Its Definition and Impact on Modern Communication

Learn about rhetoric and rhetorical practices (e.g., rhetorical analysis, rhetorical reasoning,  rhetorical situation, and rhetorical stance) so that you can strategically manage how you compose and subsequently produce a text...

Style, most simply, refers to how you say something as opposed to what you say. The style of your writing matters because audiences are unlikely to read your work or...

The Writing Process - Research on Composing

The writing process refers to everything you do in order to complete a writing project. Over the last six decades, researchers have studied and theorized about how writers go about...

Writing Studies

Writing studies refers to an interdisciplinary community of scholars and researchers who study writing. Writing studies also refers to an academic, interdisciplinary discipline – a subject of study. Students in...

Featured Articles

Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community

Professional Writing – How to Write for the Professional World

Authority – How to Establish Credibility in Speech & Writing

Please enable JavaScript

Cohesion and Coherence In Essays

Table Of Contents

Introduction.

• What is coherence?
• What is cohesion?
• Lexical cohesion
• Grammatical cohesion
• Cohesive but not coherent texts
• 1. Start with an outline
• 2. Structure your essay
• 3. Structure your paragraphs
• 4. Relevance to the main topic
• 5. Stick to the purpose of the type of essay you”re-writing
• 6. Use cohesive devices and signposting phrases
• 7. Draft, revise, and edit

Coherent essays are identified by relevance to the central topic. They communicate a meaningful message to a specific audience and maintain pertinence to the main focus. In a coherent essay, the sentences and ideas flow smoothly and, as a result, the reader can follow the ideas developed without any issues.

To achieve coherence in an essay, writers use lexical and grammatical cohesive devices. Examples of these cohesive devices are repetition, synonymy, antonymy, meronymy, substitutions , and anaphoric or cataphoric relations between sentences. We will discuss these devices in more detail below.

This article will discuss how to write a coherent essay. We will be focusing on the five major points.

• We will start with definitions of coherence and cohesion.
• Then, we will give examples of how a text can achieve cohesion.
• We will see how a text can be cohesive but not coherent.
• The structure of a coherent essay will also be discussed.
• Finally, we will look in detail at ways to improve cohesion and write a coherent essay.

Before illustrating how to write coherent essays, let us start with the definitions of coherence and cohesion and list the ways we can achieve cohesion in a coherent text.

Definitions Cohesion And Coherence

In general, coherence and cohesion refer to how a text is structured so that the elements it is constituted of can stick together and contribute to a meaningful whole. In coherent essays, writers use grammatical and lexical cohesive techniques so that ideas can flow meaningfully and logically.

What Is Coherence?

Coherence refers to the quality of forming a unified consistent whole. We can describe a text as being coherent if it is semantically meaningful, that is if the ideas flow logically to produce an understandable entity.

If a text is coherent it is logically ordered and connected. It is clear, consistent, and understandable.

Coherence is related to the macro-level features of a text which enable it to have a sense as a whole.

What Is Cohesion?

Cohesion is commonly defined as the grammatical and lexical connections that tie a text together, contributing to its meaning (i.e. coherence.)

While coherence is related to the macro-level features of a text, cohesion is concerned with its micro-level – the words, the phrases, and the sentences and how they are connected to form a whole.

If the elements of a text are cohesive, they are united and work together or fit well together.

To summarize, coherence refers to how the ideas of the text flow logically and make a text semantically meaningful as a whole. Cohesion is what makes the elements (e.g. the words, phrases, clauses, and sentences) of a text stick together to form a whole.

How To Achieve Cohesion And Coherence In Essay Writing?

There are two types of cohesion: lexical and grammatical. Writers connect sentences and ideas in their essays using both lexical and grammatical cohesive devices.

Lexical Cohesion

We can achieve cohesion through lexical cohesion by using these techniques:

• Repetition.

Now let”s look at these in more detail.

Repeating words may contribute to cohesion. Repetition creates cohesive ties within the text.

• Birds are beautiful. I like birds.

You can use a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word to achieve cohesion.

• Paul saw a snake under the mattress. The serpent was probably hiding there for a long time.

Antonymy refers to the use of a word of opposite meaning. This is often used to create links between the elements of a text.

• Old movies are boring, the new ones are much better.

This refers to the use of a word that denotes a subcategory of a more general class.

• I saw a cat . The animal was very hungry and looked ill.

Relating a superordinate term (i.e. animal) to a corresponding subordinate term (i.e. cat) may create more cohesiveness between sentences and clauses.

Meronymy is another way to achieve cohesion. It refers to the use of a word that denotes part of something but which is used to refer to the whole of it for instance faces can be used to refer to people as in “I see many faces here”. In the following example, hands refer to workers.

• More workers are needed. We need more hands to finish the work.

Grammatical Cohesion

Grammatical cohesion refers to the grammatical relations between text elements. This includes the use of:

• Cataphora .
• Substitutions.
• Conjunctions and transition words.

Let us illustrate the above devices with some examples.

Anaphora is when you use a word referring back to another word used earlier in a text or conversation.

• Jane was brilliant. She got the best score.

The pronoun “she” refers back to the proper noun “Jane”.

Cataphora is the opposite of anaphora. Cataphora refers to the use of a word or phrase that refers to or stands for a following word or phrase.

• Here he comes our hero. Please, welcome John .

The pronoun “he” refers back to the proper noun “John”.

Ellipsis refers to the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.

• Liz had some chocolate bars, and Nancy an ice cream.

In the above example, “had” in “Nancy an ice cream” is left because it can be understood (or presupposed) as it was already mentioned previously in the sentence.

Elliptic elements can be also understood from the context as in:

• A: Where are you going?

Substitutions

Substitutions refer to the use of a word to replace another word.

• A: Which T-shirt would you like?
• B: I would like the pink one .

Conjunctions transition words

Conjunctions and transition words are parts of speech that connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

• Examples of conjunctions: but, or, and, although, in spite of, because,
• Examples of transition words: however, similarly, likewise, specifically, consequently, for this reason, in contrast to, accordingly, in essence, chiefly, finally.

Here are some examples:

• I called Tracy and John.
• He was tired but happy.
• She likes neither chocolates nor cookies.
• You can either finish the work or ask someone to do it for you.
• He went to bed after he had done his homework.
• Although she is very rich, she isn’t happy.
• I was brought up to be responsible. Similarly , I will try to teach my kids how to take responsibility for their actions.

Cohesive But Not Coherent Texts

Sometimes, a text may be cohesively connected, yet may still be incoherent.

Learners may wrongly think that simply linking sentences together will lead to a coherent text.

Here is an example of a text in which sentences are cohesively connected, yet the overall coherence is lacking:

The player threw the ball toward the goalkeeper. Balls are used in many sports. Most balls are spheres, but American football is an ellipsoid. Fortunately, the goalkeeper jumped to catch the ball. The crossbar in the soccer game is made of iron. The goalkeeper was standing there.

The sentences and phrases in the above text are decidedly cohesive but not coherent.

There is a use of:

• Repetition of: the ball, goalkeeper, the crossbar.
• Conjunctions and transition words: but, fortunately.

The use of the above cohesive devices does not result in a meaningful and unified whole. This is because the writer presents material that is unrelated to the topic. Why should a writer talk about what the crossbar is made of? And is talking about the form balls in sports relevant in this context? What is the central focus of the text?

A coherent essay has to be cohesively connected and logically expressive of the central topic.

How To Write A Coherent Essay?

1. start with an outline.

An outline is the general plan of your essays. It contains the ideas you will include in each paragraph and the sequence in which these ideas will be mentioned.

It is important to have an outline before starting to write. Spending a few minutes on the outline can be rewarding. An outline will organize your ideas and the end product can be much more coherent.

Here is how you can outline your writing so that you can produce a coherent essay:

• Start with the thesis statement – the sentence that summarizes the topic of your writing.
• Brainstorm the topic for a few minutes. Write down all the ideas related to the topic.
• Sift the ideas brainstormed in the previous step to identify only the ideas worth including in your essay.
• Organize ideas in a logical order so that your essay reflects the unified content that you want to communicate.
• Each idea has to be treated in a separate paragraph.
• Think of appropriate transitions between the different ideas.
• Under each idea/paragraph, write down enough details to support your idea.

After identifying and organizing your ideas into different paragraphs, they have to fit within the conventional structure of essays.

2. Structure Your Essay

It is also important to structure your essay so that you the reader can identify the organization of the different parts of your essay and how each paragraph leads to the next one.

Here is a structure of an essay

3. Structure Your Paragraphs

Paragraphs have to be well-organized. The structure of each paragraph should have:

• A topic sentence that is usually placed at the beginning,
• Supporting details that give further explanation of the topic sentence,
• And a concluding sentence that wraps up the content of the paragraph.

The supporting sentences in each paragraph must flow smoothly and logically to support the purpose of the topic sentence. Similarly, each paragraph has to serve the thesis statement, the main topic of the essay.

4. Relevance To The Main Topic

No matter how long the essay is, we should make sure that we stick to the topic we want to talk about. Coherence is about making everything flow smoothly to create unity. So, sentences and ideas must be relevant to the central thesis statement.

The writer has to maintain the flow of ideas to serve the main focus of the essay.

5. Stick To The Purpose Of The Type Of Essay You”Re-Writing

Essays must be clear and serve a purpose and direction. This means that the writer’s thoughts must not go astray in developing the purpose of the essay.

Essays are of different types and have different purposes. Accordingly, students have to stick to the main purpose of each genre of writing.

• An expository essay aims to inform, describe, or explain a topic, using essential facts to teach the reader about a topic.
• A descriptive essay intends to transmit a detailed description of a person, event, experience, or object. The aim is to make the reader perceive what is being described.
• A narrative essay attempts to tell a story that has a purpose. Writers use storytelling techniques to communicate an experience or an event.
• In argumentative essays, writers present an objective analysis of the different arguments about a topic and provide an opinion or a conclusion of positive or negative implications. The aim is to persuade the reader of your point.

6. Use Cohesive Devices And Signposting Phrases

Sentences should be connected using appropriate cohesive devices as discussed above:

Cohesive devices such as conjunctions and transition words are essential in providing clarity to your essay. But we can add another layer of clarity to guide the reader throughout the essay by using signpost signals.

What is signposting in writing?

Signposting refers to the use of phrases or words that guide readers to understand the direction of your essay. An essay should take the reader on a journey throughout the argumentation or discussion. In that journey, the paragraphs are milestones. Using signpost signals assists the reader in identifying where you want to guide them. Signposts serve to predict what will happen, remind readers of where they are at important stages along the process, and show the direction of your essay.

Essay signposting phrases

The following are some phrases you can use to signpost your writing:

It should be noted though that using cohesive devices or signposting language may not automatically lead to a coherent text. Some texts can be highly cohesive but remain incoherent. Appropriate cohesion and signposting are essential to coherence but they are not enough. To be coherent, an essay has to follow, in addition to using appropriate cohesive devices, all the tips presented in this article.

7. Draft, Revise, And Edit

After preparing the ground for the essay, students produce their first draft. This is the first version of the essay. Other subsequent steps are required.

The next step is to revise the first draft to rearrange, add, or remove paragraphs, ideas, sentences, or words.

The questions that must be addressed are the following:

• Is the essay clear? Is it meaningful? Does it serve the thesis statement (the main topic)?
• Are there sufficient details to convey ideas?
• Are there any off-topic ideas that you have to do without?
• Have you included too much information? Does your writing stray off-topic?
• Do the ideas flow in a logical order?
• Have you used appropriate cohesive devices and transition words when needed?

Once the revision is done, it is high time for the editing stage. Editing involves proofreading and correcting mistakes in grammar and mechanics. Pay attention to:

• Verb tense.
• Subject-verb agreement.
• Sentence structure. Have you included a subject a verb and an object (if the verb is transitive.)
• Punctuation.
• Capitalization.

Coherent essays are identified by relevance to the thesis statement. The ideas and sentences of coherent essays flow smoothly. One can follow the ideas discussed without any problems. Lexical and grammatical cohesive devices are used to achieve coherence. However, these devices are not sufficient. To maintain relevance to the main focus of the text, there is a need for a whole process of collecting ideas, outlining, reviewing, and editing to create a coherent whole.

More writing lessons here .

Quick Links

Awesome links you may like.

What are idioms? And how can idioms help you become a fluent speaker? Discover a list of the most widely used idiomatic expressions!

Phrasal verbs are generally used in spoken English and informal texts. Check out our list of hundreds of phrasal verbs classified in alphabetical order.

Do you want to provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity to your writing? Check out this list of figures of speech!

Do you need to learn the irregular verbs in English? Here is a list of irregular verbs with definitions and examples!

Free English Grammar Lessons and Exercises

Study pages.

• Phrasal verbs
• Figures of speech
• Study Skills
• Global tests
• Business English
• Dictionaries
• Studying in the USA
• Visit the world
• Shared resources
• Teaching materials

Latest Blog Posts

Learn english the fun way, efl and esl community.

Subscribe and get the latest news and useful tips, advice and best offer.

Pasco-Hernando State College

• Unity and Coherence in Essays
• The Writing Process
• Paragraphs and Essays
• Proving the Thesis/Critical Thinking
• Appropriate Language

Test Yourself

• Essay Organization Quiz
• Sample Essay - Fairies
• Sample Essay - Modern Technology

Related Pages

• Proving the Thesis

Unity is the idea that all parts of the writing work to achieve the same goal: proving the thesis. Just as the content of a paragraph should focus on a topic sentence, the content of an essay must focus on the thesis.  The introduction paragraph introduces the thesis, the body paragraphs each have a proof point (topic sentence) with content that proves the thesis, and the concluding paragraph sums up the proof and restates the thesis. Extraneous information in any part of the essay which is not related to the thesis is distracting and takes away from the strength of proving the thesis.

An essay must have coherence. The sentences must flow smoothly and logically from one to the next as they support the purpose of  each paragraph in proving the thesis. .

Just as the last sentence in a paragraph must connect back to the topic sentence of the paragraph, the last paragraph of the essay should connect back to the thesis by reviewing the proof and restating the thesis.

Example of Essay with Problems of Unity and Coherence

Here is an example of a brief essay that includes a paragraph that  does not  support the thesis “Many people are changing their diets to be healthier.”

     People are concerned about pesticides, steroids, and antibiotics in the food they eat.  Many now shop for organic foods since they don’t have the pesticides used in conventionally grown food.  Meat from chicken and cows that are not given steroids or antibiotics are gaining in popularity even though they are much more expensive. More and more, people are eliminating pesticides, steroids, and antibiotics from their diets.

    Eating healthier also is beneficial to the environment since there are less pesticides poisoning the earth. Pesticides getting into the waterways is creating a problem with drinking water.  Historically, safe drinking water has been a problem. It is believed the Ancient Egyptians drank beer since the water was not safe to drink.  Brewing beer killed the harmful organisms and bacteria in the water from the Nile.

     There is a growing concern about eating genetically modified foods, and people are opting for non-GMO diets.  Some people say there are more allergic reactions and other health problems resulting from these foods.  Others are concerned because there are no long-term studies which clearly show no adverse health effects such as cancers or other illnesses. Avoiding GMO food is another way people are eating healthier food.

See how just one paragraph  can take away from the effectiveness of the essay in showing how people are changing to healthier food since the unity and coherence are affected.  There is no longer unity among all the paragraphs.  The thought pattern is disjointed and the essay loses its coherence.

Transitions and Logical Flow of Ideas

Transitions are words, groups of words, or sentences that connect one sentence to another or one paragraph to another.

They promote a logical flow from one idea to the next and overall unity and coherence.

While transitions are not needed in every sentence or at the end of every paragraph, they are missed when they are omitted since the flow of thoughts becomes disjointed or even confusing.

There are different types of transitions:

Time – before, after, during, in the meantime, nowadays

Space – over, around, under

Examples – for instance, one example is

Comparison – on the other hand, the opposing view

Consequence – as a result, subsequently

These are just a few examples.  The idea is to paint a clear, logical connection between sentences and between paragraphs.

• Printer-friendly version

Achieving coherence

“A piece of writing is coherent when it elicits the response: ‘I follow you. I see what you mean.’ It is incoherent when it elicits the response: ‘I see what you're saying here, but what has it got to do with the topic at hand or with what you just told me above?’ ” - Johns, A.M

Transitions

Parallelism, challenge task, what is coherence.

Coherence in a piece of writing means that the reader can easily understand it. Coherence is about making everything flow smoothly. The reader can see that everything is logically arranged and connected, and relevance to the central focus of the essay is maintained throughout.

Repetition in a piece of writing does not always demonstrate cohesion.   Study these sentences:

So, how does repetition as a cohesive device work?

When a pronoun is used, sometimes what the pronoun refers to (ie, the referent) is not always clear. Clarity is achieved by  repeating a key noun or synonym . Repetition is a cohesive device used deliberately to improve coherence in a text.

In the following text, decide ifthe referent for the pronoun  it   is clear. Otherwise, replace it  with the key noun English  where clarity is needed.

Click here to view the revised text.

Suggested improvement

English has almost become an international language. Except for Chinese, more people speak it (clear reference; retain)  than any other language. Spanish is the official language of more countries in the world, but more countries have English ( it is replaced with a key noun) as their official or unofficial second language. More than 70% of the world's mail is written in English ( it is replaced with a key noun).  It (clear reference; retain) is the primary language on the Internet.

Sometimes, repetition of a key noun is preferred even when the reference is clear. In the following text, it is clear that it  refers to the key noun gold , but when used throughout the text, the style becomes monotonous.

Improved text: Note where the key noun gold is repeated. The deliberate repetition creates interest and adds maturity to the writing style.

Gold , a precious metal, is prized for two important characteristics. First of all, gold has a lustrous beauty that is resistant to corrosion. Therefore, it is suitable for jewellery, coins and ornamental purposes. Gold never needs to be polished and will remain beautiful forever. For example, a Macedonian coin remains as untarnished today as the day it was made 23 centuries ago. Another important characteristic of gold is its usefulness to industry and science. For many years, it has been used in hundreds of industrial applications. The most recent use of gold is in astronauts’ suits. Astronauts wear gold -plated shields when they go outside spaceships in space. In conclusion, gold is treasured not only for its beauty but also its utility.

Pronoun + Repetition of key noun

Sometimes, greater cohesion can be achieved by using a pronoun followed by an appropriate key noun or synonym (a word with a similar meaning).

Transitions are like traffic signals. They guide the reader from one idea to the next. They signal a range of relationships between sentences, such as comparison, contrast, example and result. Click here for a more comprehensive list of Transitions (Logical Organisers) .

Test yourself: How well do you understand transitions?

Which of the three alternatives should follow the transition or logical organiser in capital letters to complete the second sentence?

Using transitions/logical organisers

Improve the coherence of the following paragraph by adding transitions in the blank spaces. Use the italicised hint in brackets to help you choose an apporpriate transition for each blank. If you need to, review the list of Transitions (Logical Organisers)   before you start.

Using transitions

Choose the most appropriate transition from the options given to complete the article:

Overusing transitions

While the use of appropriate transitions can improve coherence (as the previous practice activity shows), it can also be counterproductive if transitions are overused. Use transitions carefully to enhance and clarify the logical connection between ideas in extended texts. Write a range of sentences and vary sentence openings. 

Study the following examples:

Identifying cohesive devices

• I nfographics
• Show AWL words
• Subscribe to newsletter
• What is academic writing?
• Academic Style
• What is the writing process?
• Understanding the title
• Brainstorming
• Researching
• First draft
• Proofreading
• Report writing
• Compare & contrast
• Cause & effect
• Problem-solution
• Classification
• Essay structure
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Book review
• Research proposal
• Thesis/dissertation

What is cohesion?

• Cohesion vs coherence

Transition signals

• What are references?
• In-text citations
• Reference sections
• Reporting verbs
• Band descriptors

Show AWL words on this page.

Levels 1-5:     grey  Levels 6-10:   orange 

Show sorted lists of these words.

Any words you don't know? Look them up in the website's built-in dictionary .

Choose a dictionary .  Wordnet  OPTED  both

Cohesion How to make texts stick together

Cohesion and coherence are important features of academic writing. They are one of the features tested in exams of academic English, including the IELTS test and the TOEFL test . This page gives information on what cohesion is and how to achieve good cohesion. It also explains the difference between cohesion and coherence , and how to achieve good coherence. There is also an example essay to highlight the main features of cohesion mentioned in this section, as well as some exercises to help you practise.

For another look at the same content, check out YouTube or Youku , or the infographic .

It is important for the parts of a written text to be connected together. Another word for this is cohesion . This word comes from the verb cohere , which means 'to stick together'. Cohesion is therefore related to ensuring that the words and sentences you use stick together.

Good cohesion is achieved through the following five main methods, each of which is described in more detail below:

• repeated words/ideas
• reference words
• transition signals
• substitution

Two other ways in which cohesion is achieved in a text, which are covered less frequently in academic English courses, are shell nouns and thematic development . These are also considered below.

Repeated words/ideas

Check out the cohesion infographic »

One way to achieve cohesion is to repeat words, or to repeat ideas using different words (synonyms). Study the following example. Repeated words (or synonyms) are shown in bold.

Cohesion is an important feature of academic writing . It can help ensure that your writing coheres or 'sticks together', which will make it easier for the reader to follow the main ideas in your essay or report . You can achieve good cohesion by paying attention to five important features . The first of these is repeated words. The second key feature is reference words. The third one is transition signals. The fourth is substitution. The final important aspect is ellipsis.

In this example, the word cohesion is used several times, including as a verb ( coheres ). It is important, in academic writing, to avoid too much repetition, so using different word forms or synonyms is common. The word writing is also used several times, including the phrase essay or report , which is a synonym for writing . The words important features are also repeated, again using synonyms: key feature , important aspect .

Reference words

Reference words are words which are used to refer to something which is mentioned elsewhere in the text, usually in a preceding sentence. The most common type is pronouns, such as 'it' or 'this' or 'these'. Study the previous example again. This time, the reference words are shown in bold.

Cohesion is an important feature of academic writing. It can help ensure that your writing coheres or 'sticks together', which will make it easier for the reader to follow the main ideas in your essay or report. You can achieve good cohesion by paying attention to five important features. The first of these is repeated words. The second key feature is reference words. The third one is transition signals. The fourth is substitution. The final important aspect is ellipsis.

The words it , which and these are reference words. The first two of these, it and which , both refer to 'cohesion' used in the preceding sentence. The final example, these , refers to 'important features', again used in the sentence that precedes it.

Transition signals, also called cohesive devices or linking words, are words or phrases which show the relationship between ideas. There are many different types, the most common of which are explained in the next section on transition signals . Some examples of transition signals are:

• for example - used to give examples
• in contrast - used to show a contrasting or opposite idea
• first - used to show the first item in a list
• as a result - used to show a result or effect

Study the previous example again. This time, the transition signals are shown in bold. Here the transition signals simply give a list, relating to the five important features: first , second , third , fourth , and final .

Substitution

Substitution means using one or more words to replace (substitute) for one or more words used earlier in the text. Grammatically, it is similar to reference words, the main difference being that substitution is usually limited to the clause which follows the word(s) being substituted, whereas reference words can refer to something far back in the text. The most common words used for substitution are one , so , and auxiliary verbs such as do, have and be . The following is an example.

• Drinking alcohol before driving is illegal in many countries, since doing so can seriously impair one's ability to drive safely.

In this sentence, the phrase 'doing so' substitutes for the phrase 'drinking alcohol before driving' which appears at the beginning of the sentence.

Below is the example used throughout this section. There is just one example of substitution: the word one , which substitutes for the phrase 'important features'.

Ellipsis means leaving out one or more words, because the meaning is clear from the context. Ellipsis is sometimes called substitution by zero , since essentially one or more words are substituted with no word taking their place.

Below is the example passage again. There is one example of ellipsis: the phrase 'The fourth is', which means 'The fourth [important feature] is', so the words 'important feature' have been omitted.

Shell nouns

Shell nouns are abstract nouns which summarise the meaning of preceding or succeeding information. This summarising helps to generate cohesion. Shell nouns may also be called carrier nouns , signalling nouns , or anaphoric nouns . Examples are: approach, aspect, category, challenge, change, characteristics, class, difficulty, effect, event, fact, factor, feature, form, issue, manner, method, problem, process, purpose, reason, result, stage, subject, system, task, tendency, trend, and type . They are often used with pronouns 'this', 'these', 'that' or 'those', or with the definite article 'the'. For example:

• Virus transmission can be reduced via frequent washing of hands, use of face masks, and isolation of infected individuals. These methods , however, are not completely effective and transmission may still occur, especially among health workers who have close contact with infected individuals.
• An increasing number of overseas students are attending university in the UK. This trend has led to increased support networks for overseas students.

In the example passage used throughout this section, the word features serves as a shell noun, summarising the information later in the passage.

Cohesion is an important feature of academic writing. It can help ensure that your writing coheres or 'sticks together', which will make it easier for the reader to follow the main ideas in your essay or report. You can achieve good cohesion by paying attention to five important features . The first of these is repeated words. The second key feature is reference words. The third one is transition signals. The fourth is substitution. The final important aspect is ellipsis.

Thematic development

Cohesion can also be achieved by thematic development. The term theme refers to the first element of a sentence or clause. The development of the theme in the rest of the sentence is called the rheme . It is common for the rheme of one sentence to form the theme of the next sentence; this type of organisation is often referred to as given-to-new structure, and helps to make writing cohere.

Consider the following short passage, which is an extension of the first example above.

• Virus transmission can be reduced via frequent washing of hands, use of face masks, and isolation of infected individuals. These methods, however, are not completely effective and transmission may still occur, especially among health workers who have close contact with infected individuals. It is important for such health workers to pay particular attention to transmission methods and undergo regular screening.

Here we have the following pattern:

• Virus transmission [ theme ]
• can be reduced via frequent washing of hands, use of face masks, and isolation of infected individuals [ rheme ]
• These methods [ theme = rheme of preceding sentence ]
• are not completely effective and transmission may still occur, especially among health workers who have close contact with infected individuals [ rheme ]
• health workers [ theme, contained in rheme of preceding sentence ]
• [need to] to pay particular attention to transmission methods and undergo regular screening [ rheme ]

Cohesion vs. coherence

The words 'cohesion' and 'coherence' are often used together with a similar meaning, which relates to how a text joins together to make a unified whole. Although they are similar, they are not the same. Cohesion relates to the micro level of the text, i.e. the words and sentences and how they join together. Coherence , in contrast, relates to the organisation and connection of ideas and whether they can be understood by the reader, and as such is concerned with the macro level features of a text, such as topic sentences , thesis statement , the summary in the concluding paragraph (dealt with in the essay structure section), and other 'bigger' features including headings such as those used in reports .

Coherence can be improved by using an outline before writing (or a reverse outline , which is an outline written after the writing is finished), to check that the ideas are logical and well organised. Asking a peer to check the writing to see if it makes sense, i.e. peer feedback , is another way to help improve coherence in your writing.

Example essay

Below is an example essay. It is the one used in the persuasion essay section. Click on the different areas (in the shaded boxes to the right) to highlight the different cohesive aspects in this essay, i.e. repeated words/ideas, reference words, transition signals, substitution and ellipsis.

Title: Consider whether human activity has made the world a better place.

History shows that human beings have come a long way from where they started. They have developed new technologies which means that everybody can enjoy luxuries they never previously imagined. However , the technologies that are temporarily making this world a better place to live could well prove to be an ultimate disaster due to , among other things, the creation of nuclear weapons , increasing pollution , and loss of animal species . The biggest threat to the earth caused by modern human activity comes from the creation of nuclear weapons . Although it cannot be denied that countries have to defend themselves, the kind of weapons that some of them currently possess are far in excess of what is needed for defence . If these [nuclear] weapons were used, they could lead to the destruction of the entire planet . Another harm caused by human activity to this earth is pollution . People have become reliant on modern technology, which can have adverse effects on the environment . For example , reliance on cars causes air and noise pollution . Even seemingly innocent devices, such as computers and mobile phones, use electricity, most of which is produced from coal-burning power stations, which further adds to environmental pollution . If we do not curb our direct and indirect use of fossil fuels, the harm to the environment may be catastrophic. Animals are an important feature of this earth and the past decades have witnessed the extinction of a considerable number of animal species . This is the consequence of human encroachment on wildlife habitats, for example deforestation to expand cities. Some may argue that such loss of [animal]   species is natural and has occurred throughout earth's history. However , the current rate of [animal]   species loss far exceeds normal levels   [of animal species loss] , and is threatening to become a mass extinction event. In summary , there is no doubt that current human activities such as the creation of nuclear weapons , pollution , and destruction of wildlife , are harmful to the earth . It is important for us to see not only the short-term effects of our actions, but their long-term ones as well. Otherwise , human activities will be just another step towards destruction .

Aktas, R.N. and Cortes, V. (2008), 'Shell nouns as cohesive devices in published and ESL student writing', Journal of English for Academic Purposes , 7 (2008) 3-14.

Alexander, O., Argent, S. and Spencer, J. (2008) EAP Essentials: A teacher's guide to principles and practice . Reading: Garnet Publishing Ltd.

Gray, B. (2010) 'On the use of demonstrative pronouns and determiners as cohesive devices: A focus on sentence-initial this/these in academic prose', Journal of English for Academic Purposes , 9 (2010) 167-183.

Halliday, M. A. K., and Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English . London: Longman.

Hinkel, E. (2004). Teaching Academic ESL Writing: Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and Grammar . Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc Publishers.

Hyland, K. (2006) English for Academic Purposes: An advanced resource book . Abingdon: Routledge.

Thornbury, S. (2005) Beyond the Sentence: Introducing discourse analysis . Oxford: Macmillan Education.

GET FREE EBOOK

Like the website? Try the books. Enter your email to receive a free sample from Academic Writing Genres .

Below is a checklist for essay cohesion and coherence. Use it to check your own writing, or get a peer (another student) to help you.

Next section

Find out more about transition signals in the next section.

• Transitions

Previous section

Go back to the previous section about paraphrasing .

• Paraphrasing

Exercises & Activities Some ways to practise this area of EAP

You need to login to view the exercises. If you do not already have an account, you can register for free.

• Register        
• Forgot password        
• Resend activiation email

Author: Sheldon Smith    ‖    Last modified: 03 February 2022.

Sheldon Smith is the founder and editor of EAPFoundation.com. He has been teaching English for Academic Purposes since 2004. Find out more about him in the about section and connect with him on Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn .

Compare & contrast essays examine the similarities of two or more objects, and the differences.

Cause & effect essays consider the reasons (or causes) for something, then discuss the results (or effects).

Discussion essays require you to examine both sides of a situation and to conclude by saying which side you favour.

Problem-solution essays are a sub-type of SPSE essays (Situation, Problem, Solution, Evaluation).

Transition signals are useful in achieving good cohesion and coherence in your writing.

Reporting verbs are used to link your in-text citations to the information cited.

• Literary Terms
• Definition & Examples
• When & How to Write Coherently

I. What is Coherence?

Coherence describes the way anything, such as an argument (or part of an argument) “hangs together.”  If something has coherence, its parts are well-connected and all heading in the same direction. Without coherence, a discussion may not make sense or may be difficult for the audience to follow. It’s an extremely important quality of formal writing.

Coherence is relevant to every level of organization, from the sentence level up to the complete argument. However, we’ll be focused on the paragraph level in this article. That’s because:

• Sentence-level coherence is a matter of grammar, and it would take too long to explain all the features of coherent grammar.
• Most people can already write a fairly coherent sentence, even if their grammar is not perfect.
• When you write coherent paragraphs, the argument as a whole will usually seem coherent to your readers.

Although coherence is primarily a feature of arguments, you may also hear people talk about the “coherence” of a story, poem, etc. However, in this context the term is extremely vague, so we’ll focus on formal essays for the sake of simplicity.

Coherence is, in the end, a matter of perception. This means it’s a completely subjective judgement. A piece of writing is coherent if and only if the reader thinks it is.

II. Examples of Coherence

There are many distinct features that help create a sense of coherence. Let’s look at an extended example and go through some of the features that make it seem coherent. Most people would agree that this is a fairly coherent paragraph:

Credit cards are convenient , but dangerous . People often get them in order to make large purchases easily without saving up lots of money in advance. This is especially helpful for purchases like cars, kitchen appliances, etc., that you may need to get without delay . However, this convenience comes at a high price : interest rates. The more money you put on your credit card, the more the bank or credit union will charge you for that convenience . If you’re not careful, credit card debt can quickly break the bank and leave you in very dire economic circumstances!

• Topic Sentence . The paragraph starts with a very clear, declarative topic sentence, and the rest of the paragraph follows that sentence. Everything in the paragraph is tied back to the statement in the beginning.
• Key terms . The term “credit card” appears repeatedly in this short paragraph. This signals the reader that the whole paragraph is about the subject of credit cards. Similarly, the word convenience (and related words) are also peppered throughout. In addition, the key term “ danger ” appears in the topic sentence and is then explained fully as the paragraph goes on.
• Defined terms . For most readers, the terms in this paragraph will be quite clear and will not need to be defined. Some readers, however, might not understand the term “interest rates,” and they would need an explanation. To these readers, the paragraph will seem less coherent !

Clear transitions . Each sentence flows into the next quite easily, and readers can follow the line of logic without too much effort.

III. The Importance of Coherence

Say you’re reading a piece of academic writing – maybe a textbook. As you read, you find yourself drifting off, having to read the same sentence over and over before you understand it. Maybe, after a while, you get frustrated and give up on the chapter. What happened?

Nine times out of ten, this is a symptom of incoherence. Your brain is unable to find a unified argument or narrative in the book. This may become frustrating and often happens when a book is above your current level of understanding. To someone else, the writing might seem perfectly coherent, because they understand the concepts involved. But from your perspective, the chapter seems incoherent. And as a result, you don’t get as much out of it as you otherwise would.

How can you avoid this in your own writing? How can you make sure that readers don’t misunderstand you (or just give up altogether)? The answer is to work on coherent writing. Coherence is perhaps the most important feature of argumentative writing. Without it, everything falls apart. If an argument is not coherent, it doesn’t matter how good the evidence is, or how beautiful the writing is: an incoherent argument will never persuade anyone or even hold their attention.

V. Examples in Literature and Scholarship

Since coherence is subjective, people will disagree about the examples. This is especially true in scholarly fields , where authors are writing for a very specific audience of experts; anyone outside that audience is likely to see the work as incoherent. For example, the various fields of analytic philosophy are a great place to look for coherence in scholarly work. Analytic philosophers are trained to write very carefully, with all the steps in the argument carefully laid out ahead of time. So their arguments usually have a remarkable internal coherence. However, analytic philosophy is a very obscure topic, and very few people are trained to understand the terms these scholars use! Thus, ironically, some of the most coherent writers in academia (from an expert perspective) usually come across as incoherent to the majority of readers.

For writing Indian Schools: a Nation’s Neglect , journalist Jill Burcum was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the editorial writing category. An excellent example of coherence in journalistic writing, the editorial deals with the shabby federal schools that are meant for Native Americans on reservations. The essay’s paragraphs are much shorter than they would be in an essay. Yet each one still revolves around a single, tightly focused set of ideas. You can find key concepts (such as “neglect”) that run as themes throughout the piece. The whole editorial is also full of smooth and clear transitions.

VI. Examples in Media and Pop Culture

You can often see something like argumentative coherence in political satire. Good satire always focuses on a single question and lampoons it in a highly coherent manner. Watch, for example, Jon Stewart’s opening monologues on The Daily Show. Whatever your opinion on Stewart’s politics, it’s hard to argue with the fact that he uses terms carefully. He transitions smoothly and focuses on a single, tightly controlled set of concepts in each monologue.

Sports debates can also provide a good example of coherence. When you watch a show about sports (like SportsCenter or First Take), pay attention to the attributes of coherence. How do the hosts and guests use their terms? Do they repeat key terms? Do they start each monologue with a “topic sentence”? Do they stick to one topic, or do they go off on tangents?

VII. Related Terms

“Cogency” sounds like “coherence,” but means convincing or persuasive . The two terms are related, though: an argument cannot be cogent if it’s not coherent, because coherence is essential to persuasion. However, an argument could be coherent but not cogent (i.e. it’s clear, unified, and easy to read, but the argument does not persuade its reader).

Focus is also related to coherence. Often, coherence problems emerge when the focus is too broad. When the focus is broad, there are just too many parts to cover all at once, and writers struggle to maintain coherence.

List of Terms

• Alliteration
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Synesthesia
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
• Cite This Website

Coherence And Cohesion: Writing Tips For Seamless Texts

Learn coherence and cohesion secrets to create seamlessly flowing, impactful writing. Read this content and understand both.

Understanding the importance of coherence and cohesion in writing is fundamental, as these principles significantly impact how well your message is conveyed to the reader. These concepts empower you to create clear, logical, and organized content. 

When your writing lacks coherence, it may appear disjointed, confusing, and challenging for the reader to follow. On the other hand, without cohesion, your ideas may seem scattered and unrelated. Mastering these aspects not only enhances the overall quality of your writing but also ensures your audience can easily grasp and appreciate the information you’re presenting. 

In this article, you will gain an in-depth understanding of these essential elements. The exploration begins with a clear definition of coherence and cohesion, followed by an examination of their intricate relationship.

Definition Of Coherence

Coherence is a fundamental aspect of effective communication through written language. It encompasses the logical and orderly arrangement of ideas, details, and arguments within a text, ensuring that they connect seamlessly to convey a clear and unified message. Coherent writing allows readers to follow the author’s thought process without confusion or disruption. 

This connection of ideas is achieved through the strategic use of organization, structure, transitional elements, and logical progression. In essence, coherence is the glue that binds individual sentences, paragraphs, and sections into a cohesive and comprehensible whole, making it an indispensable element for conveying information, presenting arguments, and telling compelling stories in written form.

Definition Of Cohesion

Cohesion refers to the quality of a written text that makes it clear, organized, and logically connected. It is achieved through various linguistic devices such as transitional words, pronoun references, repetition, and logical sequencing. 

Cohesion ensures that the ideas within a text flow smoothly and are linked together, making the text easier to understand and follow. In essence, cohesion contributes to the overall coherence of a written piece, ensuring that it is cohesive and well-structured.

Relationship Between Coherence And Cohesion

The relationship between coherence and cohesion in writing is a close and interdependent one. Coherence and cohesion work together to create well-structured and easily understandable texts.

Coherence primarily deals with the overall clarity and logical flow of ideas in a piece of writing. It involves the organization of content in a way that makes sense to the reader. Coherent writing maintains a clear and consistent focus on the topic, using logical transitions between sentences and paragraphs.

On the other hand, cohesion focuses on the specific linguistic devices and techniques used to connect different parts of a text. These devices include transitional words (e.g., “therefore,” “however”), pronoun references (e.g., “it,” “they”), repetition of key terms, and logical sequencing of ideas. Cohesion ensures that the sentences within a text are linked together smoothly, enhancing the readability and comprehension of the content.

In essence, cohesion serves as a tool to achieve coherence. When a writer effectively employs cohesive elements in their writing, it enhances the overall coherence of the text. Without cohesion, even well-structured ideas may appear disjointed or confusing to the reader. Therefore, coherence and cohesion are complementary aspects of effective writing, working hand in hand to convey ideas clearly and persuasively.

Types Of Cohesion

Cohesion plays a vital role in the coherence and flow of your writing. In this section, we will explore different types of cohesion, each contributing to the overall clarity and structure of your text.

Grammatical Cohesion

Grammatical cohesion focuses on the grammatical and structural elements within a text that contribute to its coherence. It involves using linguistic devices, like pronouns and sentence structure, to create clear relationships between ideas and sentences. This type of cohesion ensures smooth writing flow and aids readers in understanding connections between different parts of your text.

For instance, pronouns like “it,” “they,” and “this” refer back to previously mentioned nouns, preventing repetition. Sentence structure, including parallelism and transitional words, also plays a crucial role in achieving grammatical cohesion. It ensures consistent presentation of similar ideas and guides readers through your writing.

Reiterative Cohesion

Reiterative cohesion involves the repetition of words, phrases, or ideas within a text to reinforce key concepts and enhance clarity. This type of cohesion is particularly useful when you want to emphasize specific points or themes throughout your writing.

By restating essential elements, you create a sense of continuity and remind readers of the central message. However, it’s crucial to use reiteration judiciously to avoid redundancy and monotony.

Lexical/Semantic/Logical Cohesion

Lexical, semantic, or logical cohesion ensures meaningful connections in your text. Writers use techniques like synonyms, antonyms, and precise vocabulary to clarify complex ideas. It also maintains consistency in word meanings and logical progression, enhancing clarity and engagement.

Referential Cohesion

Referential cohesion involves linking ideas and information within a text. It’s achieved by using pronouns, demonstratives, or repetition to connect concepts. This cohesion helps readers follow the flow of the text and understand the relationships between different parts of the content.

Textual Or Interpersonal Cohesion

Textual or interpersonal cohesion focuses on how language is used to engage and communicate with the reader. It involves strategies such as addressing the reader directly, using inclusive language, and creating a sense of connection. This type of cohesion aims to make the text more relatable and interactive, enhancing the reader’s overall experience.

Tips For Using Coherence And Cohesion In Writing

When it comes to effective writing, coherence, and cohesion play a pivotal role in shaping the clarity and flow of your text. In this section, we’ll delve into practical tips for harnessing these vital elements to create well-structured and engaging content.

Develop Topic Sentences And Themes

Effective writing hinges on clear topic sentences and well-defined themes. These elements act as your text’s structural framework, ensuring both you and your readers follow a logical path through your content.

• Identify Core Ideas: Before you begin writing, pinpoint the central concepts or themes you want to convey. These serve as the core messages or arguments you’ll explore.
• Craft Concise Topic Sentences: Start each paragraph with a concise topic sentence that introduces its main idea. Think of these sentences as guideposts, signaling what’s ahead and providing clarity.
• Establish a Strong Base: Topic sentences and themes set your text’s direction and purpose. Without them, your writing can seem disjointed and confusing.
• Map Out Content: Effective topic sentences not only introduce a paragraph’s main point but also outline the supporting details. They create a roadmap, making your content structure clear.
• Improve Readability: Strong topic sentences and themes make your writing more accessible. They help readers grasp ideas quickly and navigate your text effortlessly, making your message compelling.

By integrating these techniques into your writing, you enhance your content’s coherence and cohesion, making it more engaging and persuasive. Crafting clear topic sentences and themes provides a foundation for your ideas to shine and resonate with your audience.

Make Connections Between Ideas And Sentences

Writing with coherence involves crafting a seamless path for your readers. This means ensuring that your ideas flow logically and cohesively from one to the next. To achieve this, use transition words and phrases like “however,” “therefore,” “in contrast,” and “moreover” to signal relationships between ideas. 

Avoid abrupt shifts, as these can confuse readers and disrupt the flow. By making these connections, you not only maintain coherence but also enhance clarity and engagement, providing your audience with a richer and more enjoyable reading experience.

Utilize Transition Words To Enhance Understanding

Transition words are the glue that holds your writing together, creating a bridge between sentences and paragraphs. These words and phrases, such as “however,” “in addition,” “consequently,” and “for instance,” help guide readers through your text, making it easier for them to follow your line of thought. 

When used effectively, transition words create a smooth and logical flow, enhancing the coherence of your writing. They clarify relationships between ideas, signal shifts in focus, and add depth to your arguments. By incorporating these linguistic tools into your writing, you not only boost comprehension but also elevate the overall quality of your work.

Use Repetition When Appropriate

Repetition in writing, when used judiciously, can be a powerful tool to reinforce key ideas, engage readers, and create memorable content. By repeating certain words, phrases, or concepts, you can emphasize their significance and drive your point home effectively. 

However, the key is to use repetition purposefully and sparingly, ensuring that it aligns with your writing’s objectives. Whether it’s repeating a central theme, a thought-provoking question, or a striking metaphor, strategic repetition can enhance the cohesiveness and impact of your writing, leaving a lasting impression on your audience.

Checklist For Essay Coherence And Cohesiveness

When crafting an essay, ensuring that it has both coherence and cohesion is paramount to engage your audience and effectively convey your message. Follow this checklist to enhance the quality of your writing:

• Clear Thesis Statement: Begin with a concise and well-defined thesis statement that sets the tone for your essay.
• Logical Flow: Organize your ideas logically, ensuring each paragraph connects seamlessly to the next.
• Transitions: Use transitional words and phrases like “however,” “therefore,” and “in addition” to guide your reader through your essay.
• Topic Sentences: Start each paragraph with a clear topic sentence that previews the content to follow.
• Consistent Point of View: Maintain a consistent perspective (first, second, or third person) throughout your essay.
• Repetition with Purpose: Use repetition thoughtfully to reinforce key points or themes.
• Parallel Structure: Structure sentences and lists in a parallel format for clarity.
• Pronoun Clarity: Ensure pronouns have clear antecedents to avoid confusion.
• Sentence Variety: Vary your sentence structure for rhythm and engagement.
• Proofreading: Thoroughly proofread your essay for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.

By implementing these strategies, you can create essays that are not only coherent and cohesive but also compelling and impactful.

High Impact And Greater Visibility For Your Work

Mind the Graph can bring high impact and greater visibility to your work by transforming your research findings into engaging visuals that are easily understood and shared. This can help you reach a broader audience, foster collaboration, and ultimately enhance the recognition and influence of your scientific contributions.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Exclusive high quality content about effective visual communication in science.

About Jessica Abbadia

Jessica Abbadia is a lawyer that has been working in Digital Marketing since 2020, improving organic performance for apps and websites in various regions through ASO and SEO. Currently developing scientific and intellectual knowledge for the community's benefit. Jessica is an animal rights activist who enjoys reading and drinking strong coffee.

Content tags

Module 8: Revising a Research Paper

Writing coherently, learning objectives.

• Define coherence in terms of writing
• Identify strategies to revise your argument for coherence

The term “coherence” comes from the verb “to cohere,” which means “to be united,” “to form a whole,” or “to be logically consistent”.

Coherence in writing refers to the big picture of a text. How can you construct an essay or research paper to create a united, logically consistent whole?

The USDA’s controversial and now deprecated food pyramid.

Consider this example:

Micronutrients play a vital role in the maintenance of healthy skin and immune function.  Of course, nothing is better for healthy skin than sleep and proper hydration. Many Americans drink too little water every day. There has been a good deal of debate about the 8-glasses-of-water advice that many of us remember from growing up. Will this advice go the way of the food pyramid? As it turns out, the food pyramid does not represent a medically ideal diet. A number of health organizations have criticized the food pyramid’s advice, and some have even suggested that the food industry had far too great a role in its creation. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time the food industry has intervened in public health policy.

This passage is cohesive, meaning that one sentence flows from the next. But it’s not coherent. Why?

• The topics of the individual sentences vary widely. We go from hearing about micronutrients to sleep and hydration to recommended water intake to the food pyramid. If sentences (and paragraphs) in a piece of writing don’t share common topics and ideas, how is the reader supposed to understand what the piece is about?
• The paragraph lacks a topic sentence signaling its main idea or purpose. The first sentence sounds like it could be a topic sentence, but the paragraph doesn’t stay with micronutrients for long.

Overall, this paragraph illustrates the pitfalls of associative organization (healthy skin → water → nutrition advice→ food pyramid) and topic sentences that fail to live up to the promise they make to readers. Your reader will become disoriented, fail to see your point (if you have one), and walk away frustrated.

Revising for Coherence

A coherent text needs a strong, logical structure. To revise for coherence, you must first check the logic and flow of your draft to ensure readers can see the big picture you are trying to create.

Reverse Outlining

Let’s face it: the process of writing a draft can be hectic, messy, and confusing. Sometimes we don’t really know what we’ve written until the dust settles. Reverse outlining can help us see the overall structure of the draft, which often differs significantly from what we set out to write!

To write a reverse outline,

• Number each paragraph in your draft (write in the margin or use the comment feature in Docs or Word).
• In a separate document, write down these numbers, one per line.
• If you have trouble figuring out what the paragraph is about, make a note for yourself that the paragraph needs to be reworked.
• If the paragraph is has more than one main idea, make a note for yourself that it needs to be split in two.
• If you find a redundant paragraph that repeats a point made in another paragraph using different words, make a note to combine or differentiate the two paragraphs.
• If a paragraph doesn’t relate to the overall argument, make a note to revise or remove this paragraph.
• How does this sequence of topics help you achieve your purpose (or not)?
• Are any topics unnecessary or redundant?
• Are there any extended side-notes or rabbit-holes that risk confusing the reader?
• How could you revise and reorder paragraph topics to better accomplish your goals?

Compare the sequence of points in your reverse outline with your original outline (if you have one) to see where you diverged from your plan. Finally, you can create a new outline that represents the best possible sequence of points and revise your draft accordingly.

The following video describes reverse outlining, its benefits, and a technique you can use to reverse outline your draft.

Question Outlining

If you’re still not sure about the overall order of your argument, you can try writing an outline of questions:

• Create a new list of numbers corresponding to the paragraphs of your paper.
• For each paragraph, think about what question this paragraph is answering.
• Write this question down from the point of view of the audience.
• Does this sequence of questions reflect how a reasonable person might seek answers about your topic?
• How do the questions connect to one another?
• Does it make sense to answer some before others?
• Would it be beneficial to have these questions follow a more logical pattern of development (general to specific, or specific to general)?
• Food Pyramid. Provided by : USDA. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_pyramid_(nutrition)#/media/File:USDA_Food_Pyramid.gif . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Writing Coherently. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

11 Unity & Coherence

Preserving unity.

Academic essays need unity, which means that all of the ideas in an essay need to relate to the thesis, and all of the ideas in a paragraph need to relate to the paragraph’s topic. It can be easy to get “off track” and start writing about an idea that is somewhat related to your main idea, but does not directly connect to your main point.

All of the sentences in a paragraph should stay “on track;” that is, they should connect to the topic. One way to preserve unity in a paragraph is to start with a topic sentence that shows the main idea of the paragraph. Then, make sure each sentence in the paragraph relates to that main idea.

If you find a sentence that goes off track, perhaps you need to start a separate paragraph to write more about that different idea. Each paragraph should generally have only one main idea.

As you pre-write and draft an essay, try to pause occasionally. Go back to the assignment prompt and re-read it to make sure you are staying on topic. Use the prompt to guide your essay; make sure you are addressing all of the questions. Do not just re-state the words in the prompt. Instead, respond to the questions with your own ideas, in your own words, and make sure everything connects to the prompt and your thesis.

Activity A ~ Finding Breaks in Unity

Consider the following paragraphs. Is there a topic sentence? If so, do all of the other sentences relate to the topic sentence? Can you find any sentences that don’t relate?

     The planned community of Columbia, Maryland, was designed as a city open to all, regardless of race, level of income, or religion. When Columbia began in 1967, many cities in the U.S. did not allow people of certain races to rent or buy homes. Its developer, James W. Rouse, wanted to build a new city that had fair and open housing options for everyone. HCC has a building named for James W. Rouse. Today, the city’s nearly 100,000 remain diverse, as shown by recent census data. *****

    College can be expensive and difficult. Critical thinking is a very important skill for college students to develop so that they can be successful in their careers. Employers look for graduates who can understand information, analyze data, and solve problems. They also want employees who can think creatively and communicate their ideas clearly. College students need to practice these skills in all of their classes so that they can demonstrate their abilities to potential employers. ***** Bananas are one of Americans’ favorite types of fruit. The Cavendish variety, grown in Central and South America, is the most commonly sold here in the U.S. Recent problems with a fungus called Panama disease (or TR4), however, have led to a shortage of Cavendish bananas. Similar problems occurred a few years ago in parts of Asia and the Middle East. Because the fungus kills the crop and contaminates the soil, scientists are concerned that the popular Cavendish banana could be completely eradicated. Bananas contain many nutrients, including potassium and Vitamin B6. *****

Whether you choose to include a topic sentence or not, all of the sentences in your paragraph need to relate to the one main idea of the paragraph.

Another way to think about unity in a paragraph is to imagine your family tree. Draw a quick sketch of your family tree in your notebook. If you were writing an essay about your family, you might write a paragraph about close family members first. Next, you might branch out into another paragraph to write about more distant relatives. You might even include a paragraph about very close family friends, or pets. Each paragraph would have just one main idea (immediate family, more distant relatives, close family friends), and every sentence in each paragraph would relate to that main idea.

Activity B ~ Preserving Unity in Your Own Writing

Examine a composition that you have written for this class. Do all of your paragraphs have unity? Can you find any sentences that don’t relate to the topic of each paragraph? Exchange papers with a partner to peer review.

Ensuring Coherence

There are several ways to create connections between ideas in your essay. Here are some suggestions:

1. Repeat key words and phrases. This can be a powerful way to make a point. Consider this excerpt from Rev. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in which he uses parallel structure :

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

2. Use synonyms , as in this example, where King uses both repetition (“Let freedom ring”) and synonyms (for “mountains”):

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

3. Use pronouns to refer to antecedents , as King does here; this can be more elegant than just repeating the key words and phrases:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

4. Use demonstratives ( this, that, these, those ) as adjectives or pronouns, as King does here:

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”…. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.  

Questions to Ponder

Pause for a moment here to think about the examples above. Think about audience, purpose, and context of an academic essay. Would you use the techniques for coherence in the same way that Dr. King did in his speech, or would you use the techniques in a different way? Discuss with a small group.

5. Use transitions. Transition words and phrases will help you to make sure your essay has coherence. Also called signal words/phrases or signposts, these help to guide your readers.

Transitions connect your related ideas; they can also show your reader that you are starting a new topic, giving an example, adding information, explaining causes and effects, and so on. Using the correct transition word or phrase in a sentence can make your writing much clearer. Try the activity below to think of possible transitions.

Activity C ~ Transition Words & Phrases

With your partner, brainstorm a list of transition words and phrases for each of the categories below.

Can you think of other transition words and phrases? What other categories do they belong to?

After you have completed these activities with your partner, consult  Transition Words & Phrases ~ Useful Lists for more on compare/contrast, addition, cause/effect, and other transitions to try.

Activity D ~ Ensuring Coherence in Your Own Writing

Examine a composition that you have written for this class for coherence. Find and mark examples of places where you used repetition, synonyms, pronouns or demonstratives to build connections between ideas.

Underline your transition words and phrases. Did you use the strongest signal words? Can you find examples where you need to add a transition? Or, did you use too many transitions? Exchange papers with a partner to peer review.

Consult our chapter on Transitions for more inspiration on achieving coherence and cohesion in your writing. Challenge yourself to use some new transitions in your next composition.

Is this chapter:

…about right, but you would like more examples? –> Read “ Cohesion and Coherence ” from George Mason University’s Writing Center.

…too easy, or you would like more examples? –> Read “ ESL: Coherence and Cohesion ” from the Writing & Communication Center at the University of Washington/Bothell

Note: links open in new tabs.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “I Have a Dream.” March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 28 August 1963. Washington, D.C. Speech.

to start to do something different

short piece or sample, for example a direct quote in writing or a few measures of a musical composition

to think about

ENGLISH 087: Academic Advanced Writing Copyright © 2020 by Nancy Hutchison is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

What this handout is about

This handout will explain what flow is, discuss how it works, and offer strategies to improve the flow of your writing.

What is flow?

Writing that “flows” is easy to read smoothly from beginning to end. Readers don’t have to stop, double back, reread, or work hard to find connections between ideas. Writers have structured the text so that it’s clear and easy to follow. But how do you make your writing flow? Pay attention to coherence and cohesion.

Coherence—global flow

Coherence, or global flow, means that ideas are sequenced logically at the higher levels: paragraphs, sections, and chapters. Readers can move easily from one major idea to the next without confusing jumps in the writer’s train of thought. There’s no single way to organize ideas, but there are common organizational patterns, including (but not limited to):

• Chronological (e.g., a history or a step-by-step process)
• Grouping similar ideas (e.g., advantages / disadvantages; causes / effects)
• Moving from large to small (e.g., national to local) or vice versa (local to national)
• Assertion, evidence, reasoning (e.g., an argument essay)
• Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (e.g., lab reports)

More than a single organizational strategy can be present in a single draft, with one pattern for the draft as a whole and another pattern within sections or paragraphs of that draft. Take a look at some examples:

Assignment: Describe how domestic and international travel has changed over the last two centuries.

Primary pattern: chronological Additional pattern: grouping

Travel in the 19th century: Domestic travel. International travel. Travel in the 20th century: Domestic travel. International travel.

Assignment: “Analyze the contribution of support services to student success.”

Primary pattern: Assertion, evidence Additional patterns: various

(Assertion) Students who actively use support services have a better college experience (Chronological) Story of first-year student’s difficult experience in college (Grouping) Social and psychological reasons students may avoid using resources (Evidence) Research on academic resources and academic performance (Evidence) Research on self-care resources and student well-being (Chronological) Story of student’s much-improved second-year experience in college

Even though there are various patterns, there’s also a certain logic and consistency. If your readers can follow your organization and understand how you’re connecting your ideas, they will likely feel as though the essay “flows.”

You can also preview your organization through signposting. This strategy involves giving your readers a roadmap before they delve into the body of your paper, and it’s typically found near the beginning of a shorter essay or at the end of the first section of a longer work, such as a thesis. It may look something like this:

“This paper examines the value of using resources in university settings. The first section describes the experience of a first-year student at a top-tier university who did not use resources. The following section describes possible reasons for not using them. It then describes the types of resources available and surveys the research on the benefits of using these resources. The essay concludes with an analysis of how the student’s experience changed after taking advantage of the available support.”

Analyzing coherence

Try these two strategies to analyze the flow of your draft at the global level.

Reverse outlining

A reverse outline allows you to see how you have organized your topics based on what you actually wrote, rather than what you planned to write. After making the reverse outline, you can analyze the order of your ideas. To learn more about reverse outlining, you can watch our demo of this strategy , or read our Reorganizing Drafts handout for a more in-depth explanation. Some questions to consider:

• How am I ordering ideas? Can I describe the pattern?
• Why are the ideas presented in this order? Would they make more sense if I reorder them?
• What effect does the order of ideas have on my readers?
• How would reordering the information affect my paper?

Color coding

You can use color coding to group similar ideas or ideas that are connected in various ways. After sorting your ideas into differently colored groups, figure out how these ideas relate to one another, both within color groups and between color groups. For example, how do blue ideas relate to one another? How does this blue idea connect to this yellow idea? We have a short color coding demo that illustrates using the strategy before you draft. The reverse outlining demo above illustrates this strategy applied to an existing draft.

Cohesion—local flow

Cohesion, or local flow, means that the ideas are connected clearly at the sentence level. With clear connections between sentences, readers can move smoothly from one sentence to the next without stopping, doubling back, or trying to make sense of the text. Fortunately, writers can enhance cohesion with the following sentence-level strategies.

Known-to-new sequencing

Readers can process familiar (“known”) information more quickly than unfamiliar (“new”) information. When familiar information appears at the beginning of sentences, readers can concentrate their attention on new information in later parts of the sentence. In other words, sequencing information from “known to new” can help enhance the flow.

The paragraphs below illustrate this sequencing. They both contain the same information, but notice where the known and new information is located in each version.

1. The compact fluorescent bulb has become the standard bulb for household lamps. Until recently, most people used incandescent bulbs in their lamps. Heating a tungsten filament until it glows, throwing off light, is how this type of bulb operates. Unfortunately, approximately 90% of the energy used to produce the light is wasted by heating the filament.

2. The compact fluorescent bulb has become the standard bulb for household lamps. Until recently, most lamps used incandescent bulbs. This type of bulb operates by heating a tungsten filament until it glows, throwing off light. Unfortunately, heating the filament wastes approximately 90% of the energy used to produce the light.

The second version flows better because it follows the known-to-new strategy. In the second paragraph, notice how “household lamps” appears in the “new” position (the end of the sentence), and in the next sentence, “most lamps” appears in the “known” position (or beginning of the sentence). Similarly, “incandescent bulbs” appears for the first time in the “new” position, and then “this type of bulb” appears in the “known” position of the next sentence, and so on.

In this example, the new information in one sentence appeared in the known position of the very next sentence, but that isn’t always the case. Once the new information has been introduced in the later part of a sentence, it becomes known and can occupy the beginning part of any subsequent sentence.

Transitional expressions

Transitions indicate the logical relationships between ideas—relationships like similarity, contrast, addition, cause and effect, or exemplification. For an in-depth look at how to use transitions effectively, take a look at our transitions handout . For an explanation of the subtle differences between transitional expressions, see our transitions (ESL) handout .

Clear pronoun reference

Flow can be interrupted when pronoun reference is unclear. Pronouns are words like he, she, it, they, which, and this. We use these words to substitute for nouns that have been mentioned earlier. We call these nouns “antecedents.” For example,

Clear reference: Active listening strategies help you learn. They focus your attention on important lecture content.

It’s clear that “strategies” is the antecedent for “they” because it’s the only noun that comes before the pronoun. When there’s more than one possible antecedent, the choice may be less clear, and the cohesion won’t be as strong. Take a look at the example below.

Unclear reference: I went by the bookstore earlier and bought some textbooks and notebooks for my classes, but I’m going to have to return them because I bought the wrong ones.

Here, “them” could refer to two antecedents: the textbooks or the notebooks. It’s unclear which of these purchases needs to be returned, so your reader may have to pause to try to figure it out, thus interrupting the flow of the reading experience. Generally, this problem can be fixed by either adding another noun, or rephrasing the sentence. Let’s try both strategies by adding a noun and breaking the sentence in two.

Clear reference: I went by the bookstore earlier and bought some textbooks and notebooks for my classes. I’m going to have to return the textbooks because I bought the wrong ones.

Now, it is clear what needs to be returned.

A common cause of confusion in a text is the use of “which.” Look at this example:

Unclear reference: I’ve begun spending more time in the library and have been getting more sleep , which has resulted in an improvement in my test scores.

Does “which” here refer to spending more time in the library, getting more sleep, or both? Again, let’s solve this by splitting it into two sentences and changing our wording:

Clear reference: I’ve begun spending more of my free time in the library and have been getting more sleep. These habits have resulted in an improvement in my test scores.

Here’s another example of “which” being used in a sentence. In this sentence, “which” only has one antecedent, the roommate’s habit of staying up late, so it is clear why the writer is having difficulties sleeping.

Clear reference: My new roommate tends to stay up late, which has made it hard for me to get enough sleep.

This/these + summary noun

Another way to clarify the reference of pronouns like “this” or “these” is to add a summary noun. Look at this example:

The school board put forth a motion to remove the school vending machines and a motion to move detention to the weekend instead of after school. This created backlash from students and parents.

In the sentence above, “this” is vague, and could be referring to a number of things. It could refer to:

• The removal of vending machines
• The moving of detention
• Both motions

We can make this sentence more clear by adding something called a “summary noun,” like so:

The school board put forth a motion to remove the school vending machines, and a motion to move detention to the weekend instead of after school. These motions created backlash from students and parents.

By adding “motions,” the sentence can now only refer to both motions, rather than either individually.

Parallel structure

Parallel structure means using the same grammatical structure for things that come in sets. The similarity creates a rhythm that helps the writing flow.

Not parallel: walking, talked, and chewing gum

Parallel: walking, talking, and chewing gum

Not parallel: teenagers…people in their thirties…octogenarians

Parallel: people in their teens…people in their thirties…people in their eighties

Not parallel: To perform at your peak, you will need to get enough sleep each night, read the material and prepare questions before class every day, and be eating nutritious, well-balanced meals.

Parallel: To perform at your peak, you will need to get enough sleep each night, read the material and prepare questions before class every day, and eat nutritious, well-balanced meals.

Getting to the verb

Academic writers often disguise actions as things, making those things the subject of the sentence.

This change is called “nominalization” (“changing a verb to a noun”). It can be a useful strategy, but it can lead to excessively long subjects, pushing the verb far away from the beginning of the sentence. When there are too many words before the verb, the connection between the verb and the subject may not be clear. Readers may have to look backward in the sentence to find the subject, interrupting the flow of their reading.

Look at this example:

Student government’s recent decision to increase the rental fee on spaces that student groups reserve in the Union for regular meetings or special events, especially during high demand periods of the semester like homecoming week or the Week of Welcome but not during low-demand periods like midterm or finals week, elicited a response from several groups that were concerned about the potential impact of the change on their budgets.

“Student government’s decision…elicited a response.” There are 50 words before the verb “elicited” in this sentence! Compare this revision:

Student government recently decided to increase the rental fee on spaces that student groups reserve in the Union for regular meetings or special events, especially during high demand periods of the semester like homecoming week or the Week of Welcome but not during low-demand periods like midterm or finals week. This decision elicited a response from several groups that were concerned about the potential impact of the change on their budgets.

By changing the thing “decision” into the action “decided,” we’ve created a sentence with just two words before the verb, so it’s very clear who did what. We’ve also split the longer sentence into two, keeping the verb “elicited” and adding “this decision.”

Look for nouns that have underlying actions and try turning them into verbs near the beginning of your sentence: decision–>decide; emergence–>emerge; notification–>notify; description–>describe; etc.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

Towson University. n.d. “Pronoun Reference.” Online Writing Support. https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/proref.htm .

Williams, Joseph, and Joseph Bizup. 2017. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace , 12th ed. Boston: Pearson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

• Creating Coherence in Writing
• English Department

June 3, 2021

In this series, we’re discussing the way your essays will be evaluated in English 101, Southern’s first-year writing course. The five elements are unity, coherence, content, style, and correctness.

After seeing how to make your essay unified through the use of a good title, an organic first line, a specific thesis, and an interesting closing, let’s go to the next key element of writing, coherence.

Coherence is the quality of an essay that makes it easier to read. The technique can be described with many vivid analogies.

Essays should show natural structure, connectedness, flow, bridge-building, plot, thread, and harmony. Each of these expressions mean the same thing. As they read your essay, readers should have a strong sense of anticipation and sequence. They should be drawn forward toward your conclusion.

A coherent essay is a single unit with a beginning, middle, and end in the same way that an animal “unit” has a beginning, middle, and end. The cheetah has a particular sort of head, body, and tail which makes it perfect for what it does—chase down its prey. It all works together to that end.

Instead of being a disconnected collection of sentences and paragraphs, coherent essays contain sentences and paragraphs that work together for a common purpose. Without cohesion, readers are forced to make the connections between apparently disconnected ideas. Readers have to “write” the essay. You don’t want readers to do your work!

There are many techniques for creating coherence. Any element of an essay that points backward and draws forward will do the job. You can use synonyms, pronouns, paraphrase, and repetition to point forward and backward in an essay. An example of paraphrasing: “The Super Bowl lasted for six hours. This time broke a record.”

The music analogy is particularly potent. To make music, we have to arrange notes harmoniously. Random notes are not the kind of music we usually like. A note is beautiful only in context of other notes. An essay is a “tune,” perhaps even a symphony.

When you read professional writing, note how authors create coherence. There are two ways to learn the principle of coherence. Practice it consciously and identify it in the writing of others. You too can become a fine author.

• Home | English Matters
• The Power of Cause and Effect Thinking
• English Spelling
• From Whence Comes the Rose
• The Question of Human Suffering
• Annika's Story
• How To Read the Bible Out Loud
• Active vs. Passive Meaning
• Critical Thinking | A Christian Art
• To. get. her.
• MFT Prep - Question Style
• "Frigate" by Christina Cannon
• A Literary Sentence
• Which Half?
• Existentialism and Literature
• Writers and Their Sources
• Welcome Back!
• My Hopes and Dreams
• Review: Writing in a Group
• New Student Orientation
• Book Review | Homage to Catalonia
• Two Kinds of Writing
• The Tropes and the Figures
• Word Choice | What Churchill Meant
• Interviews | Erick Flores
• Faculty News | Linda Tym
• Alumni News
• Critical Thinking | The Influence of Bad Ideas
• Only Two Kinds of Reasoning
• The Virtues of Nouns and Verbs
• Jack London's Periodic Sentences
• When Even the Best Writing Fails to Persuade
• Creating Correctness in Writing
• Creating Style in Writing
• Creating Content in Writing
• Recruiting at Collegedale Academy
• Creating Unity in Writing
• What Phaedrus Learned about Composition
• Classical Invention
• Interviews | Madison Wilcox
• JobWorld | Students Feel Unprepared for World of Work
• Good Advice about Writing
• Sentence Length and Focus
• JobWorld | Content Marketing
• Literary Theory | New Criticism
• Biblical Literature | The Supernarrative
• Program Notes | ENGL 460 Senior English Project
• That's Good Advice! | The 80% Rule
• Tropes and Figures | Paraprosdokians
• Grammar | Identifying Parts of Speech the Easy Way
• GRE Prep | Sample Question
• Interviews | Erik Lorenz
• Tropes and Figures | Congeries
• Senior Awards
• Short and Sweet | Will Rogers
• Biblical Literature | The Real Problem of Pain
• Education News | Taiwan Pushes English
• The GRE in Literature
• Stylistics | Collocations
• From Boomer to Zoomer
• Author Profile | Gertrude Stein

Visit Us: Collegedale, Tennessee

See For Yourself

Follow along.

• Change Your Password
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Consumer Information
• © Copyright All Rights Reserved

Definition of Coherence Coherence is a Latin word, that means “to paste together.” In a composition, coherence is a literary method that refers to logical connections, which listeners or readers understand in an oral or written textual content. In different words, it is a written or spoken piece this is not simplest constant and logical, but additionally unified and meaningful. It makes sense when study or listened to as a entire. The structure of a coherent paragraph should be general to specific and unique to popular or every other format. Types of Coherence Local Level Coherent Text In this sort of textual content, coherence occurs inside small quantities of a passage or a textual content. Global level Coherent Text In this kind of text, coherence takes place inside the complete textual content of a tale or essay, in place of in its few parts. Examples of Coherence in Literature Example #1: One Man’s Meat (via E.B. White) “Scientific agriculture, however sound in principle, often appears surprisingly unrelated to, and unaware of, the vital, grueling job of making a residing by using farming. Farmers feel this high-quality in it as they have a look at their bulletins, simply as a terrible man senses in a rich man an incomprehension of his very own problems. The farmer of today is aware of, for instance, that manure loses a number of its price when exposed to the weather … But he knows also that to make hay he needs settled climate – better weather than you usually get in June.” This is a global stage coherent textual content passage wherein White has wonderfully unified the sentences to make it a entire. He has commenced the passage with a wellknown topic, medical agriculture, but moved it to a selected textual content about farmers and their roles. Example #2: A Tale of Two Cities (by means of Charles Dickens) “The wine turned into red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street within the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it become spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and plenty of bare feet, and many wood shoes. The fingers of the man who sawed the wood, left pink marks on the billets; and the brow of the girl who nursed her baby, become stained with the stain of the antique rag she wound about her head again. Those who were greedy with the staves of the cask … scrawled upon a wall together with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—BLOOD.” Taken from the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, this passage’s emphasis is on the idea of staining, and scrawling the word “blood,” which further brings coherence into the lines. The connection is consequently made through the advent of Wood-Sawyer, a man who scares Lucie later. This is how it achieves coherence. Example #3: Animal Farm (through George Orwell) “Now, comrades, what is the nature of this existence of ours? Let us face it: our lives are depressing, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given simply so much meals as will maintain the breath in our bodies, and people folks who are capable of it are pressured to paintings to the remaining atom of our strength … “No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. The life of an animal is distress and slavery: that is the obvious truth.” Through the speech of the Old Major, Orwell starts the passage approximately the depressing nature of the life of animals at the animal farm, after which he evokes them to reflect onconsideration on how to safeguard their pursuits at the farm. The whole paragraph is an instance of coherent speech. Example #4: Unpopular Essays (by using Bertrand Russell) “The word “philosophy” is one in all which the which means is in no way fixed. Like the word “religion,” it has one experience when used to explain certain capabilities of historical cultures, and every other when used to denote a observe or an attitude of thoughts which is considered desirable inside the gift day. Philosophy, as pursued in the universities of the Western democratic world, is, as a minimum in intention, a part of the pursuit of knowledge, aiming on the same type of detachment as is sought in science …” See how brilliantly Russell has connected the ideas of philosophy and politics, with the aid of shifting from a fashionable to a particular topic, with sentences connecting one to any other, growing coherence. Function Coherence hyperlinks the sentences of a piece with one another. This may be carried out with paragraphs, ensuring that each announcement logically connects with the only previous it, making the text less difficult for the readers to apprehend and follow. Also, ordering thoughts in a sequence helps the reader to transport from one factor to the subsequent smoothly. As all of the sentences relate again to the topic, the mind and thoughts glide smoothly.

• Alliteration
• Anachronism
• Antimetabole
• Aposiopesis
• Characterization
• Colloquialism
• Connotation
• Deus Ex Machina
• Didacticism
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Flash Forward
• Foreshadowing
• Internal Rhyme
• Juxtaposition
• Non Sequitur
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Poetic Justice
• Point of View
• Portmanteau
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Superlative
• Synesthesia
• Tragicomedy
• Tragic Flaw
• Verisimilitude

Writing Resources: Developing Cohesion

Cohesion  is a characteristic of a successful essay  when it flows as a united whole ; meaning, there is unity and connectedness between all of the parts. Cohesion is a writing issue at a macro and micro level. At a macro-level, cohesion is the way a paper uses a thesis sentence, topic sentences, and transitions across paragraphs to help unify and focus a paper. On a micro-level, cohesion happens within the paragraph unit between sentences; when each sentence links back to the previous sentence and looks ahead to the next, there is cohesion across sentences. Cohesion is an important aspect of writing because it helps readers to follow the writer’s thinking. 

Misconceptions & Stumbling Blocks

Many writers believe that you should avoid repetition at all costs. It’s true that strong writing tends to not feel repetitive in terms of style and word choice; however, some repetition is necessary in order to build an essay and even paragraphs that build on each other and develop logically. A pro tip when you’re drafting an essay would be to build in a lot of repetition and then as you revise, go through your essay and look for ways you can better develop your ideas by paraphrasing your argument and using appropriate synonyms.

Building Cohesion

Essay focus: macro cohesion.

Locate & read your thesis sentence and the first and last sentence of each paragraph. You might even highlight them and/or use a separate piece of paper to make note of the key ideas and subjects in each (that is, making a reverse outline while you’re reading).

• How do these sentences relate?
• How can you use the language of the thesis statement again in topic sentences to reconnect to the main argument?
• Does each paragraph clearly link back to the thesis? Is it clear how each paragraph adds to, extends, or complicates the thesis?
• Repetition of key terms and ideas (especially those that are key to the argument)
• Repetition of central arguments; ideally, more than repeating your argument, it evolves and develops as it encounters new supporting or conflicting evidence.
• Appropriate synonyms. Synonyms as well as restating (paraphrasing) main ideas and arguments both helps you to explain and develop the argument and to build cohesion in your essay.

Paragraph Focus: Micro Cohesion

For one paragraph, underline the subject and verb of each sentence.

• Does the paragraph have a consistent & narrow focus?
• Will readers see the connection between the sentences?
• Imagine that the there is a title for this paragraph: what would it be and how would it relate to the underlined words?
• Repetition of the central topic and a clear understanding of how the evidence in this paragraph pushes forward or complicates that idea.
• Variations on the topic
• Avoid unclear pronouns (e.g., it, this, these, etc.). Rather than using pronouns, try to state a clear and specific subject for each sentence. This is an opportunity to develop your meaning through naming your topic in different ways.
• Synonyms for key terms and ideas that help you to say your point in slightly new ways that also push forward your ideas.

Sentence to Sentence: Micro Cohesion  

Looking at one paragraph, try to name what each sentence is doing to the previous: is it adding further explanation? Is it complicating the topic? Is it providing an example? Is it offering a counter-perspective? Sentences that build off of each other have movement that is intentional and purposeful; that is, the writer knows the purpose of each sentence and the work that each sentence accomplishes for the paragraph.

• Transition words (look up a chart) to link sentence and to more clearly name what you’re doing in each sentence (e.g., again, likewise, indeed, therefore, however, additionally, etc.) 
• Precise verbs to help emphasize what the writer is doing and saying (if you’re working with a source/text) or what you’re doing and saying.
• Again, clear and precise subjects that continue to name your focus in each sentence.

A Link to a PDF Handout of this Writing Guide

• Our Sponsors

Coherence: Importance, Techniques &Examples in English Grammar

• advanced , English Grammar
• 22 min read

Definition of Coherence

Introduction: Coherence is a fundamental concept in English grammar that refers to the logical and smooth flow of ideas within a piece of writing. It ensures that the content is organized in a way that makes sense to the reader, allowing them to effortlessly comprehend the message being conveyed. In this section, we will explore the definition of coherence, its significance in effective communication, and how it can be achieved in your writing.

The main part of Topic: Coherence, in the context of English grammar, is the quality that makes a text or a paragraph logically connected and easy to understand. It involves arranging ideas and sentences in a manner that allows readers to follow the progression of your thoughts without confusion. When a piece of writing lacks coherence, it may seem disjointed or fragmented, making it challenging for readers to grasp the intended meaning.

Coherence can be achieved through various techniques, such as:

• 1.Paragraph Structure: Organizing your writing into paragraphs helps create coherence by grouping related ideas together. Each paragraph should have a clear topic sentence that introduces the main idea, followed by supporting sentences that provide details or examples.

Example: Consider this paragraph on the topic of travel:

“Traveling broadens our horizons. It allows us to explore new cultures, experience different cuisines, and interact with people from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, it offers opportunities for personal growth and self-discovery. Whether it’s hiking through lush mountains or strolling along picturesque beaches, travel opens our minds to the wonders of the world.”

Key Takeaways:

• Coherence refers to the logical and smooth flow of ideas in writing.
• It ensures that the content is organized in a way that makes sense to the reader.
• Coherence can be achieved through paragraph structure.
• “Traveling broadens our horizons.”
• “It allows us to explore new cultures, experience different cuisines, and interact with people from diverse backgrounds.”
• “Additionally, it offers opportunities for personal growth and self-discovery.”
• “Whether it’s hiking through lush mountains or strolling along picturesque beaches, travel opens our minds to the wonders of the world.”

Importance of Coherence

Understanding the importance of coherence in English grammar is crucial for effective communication. Coherence ensures that your ideas flow smoothly, allowing readers to follow your thoughts effortlessly. In this section, we will explore why coherence is vital in writing and how it enhances clarity and understanding.

The main part of Topic:

• 1.Clarity and Comprehension: Coherence plays a significant role in ensuring clarity and comprehension in your writing. When your ideas are logically connected and presented in a coherent manner, readers can easily understand your message. Coherent writing helps prevent ambiguity and confusion, allowing readers to engage with your content more effectively.
• 2.Reader Engagement: Coherence in writing encourages reader engagement. When your ideas flow logically from one sentence to the next, readers are more likely to stay interested and continue reading. By providing a cohesive structure, you create a smoother reading experience that captivates your audience and encourages them to absorb your content fully.
• 3.Professionalism and Credibility: Writing with coherence showcases professionalism and enhances your credibility as a writer. When your ideas are well-organized and connected, readers perceive you as knowledgeable and trustworthy. Coherent writing reflects attention to detail, clear thinking, and a commitment to delivering information in a manner that is easily digestible.

Examples: Example 1: Incoherent: “I love hiking. My favorite trail is in the mountains. The scenery is beautiful. I also enjoy the beach. The sand is soft and warm.”

Coherent: “I love hiking because of the beautiful scenery on the mountain trails. The breathtaking views and peaceful atmosphere make it a truly enjoyable experience. Additionally, I also find solace in spending time at the beach, where I can relax on the soft, warm sand.”

Example 2: Incoherent: “The benefits of exercise are physical health, mental well-being, and it boosts energy levels. It also helps with stress reduction.”

Coherent: “Exercise provides numerous benefits for both physical and mental well-being. Regular physical activity promotes better overall health, including increased energy levels and stress reduction.”

• Coherence ensures clarity and comprehension in your writing.
• It enhances reader engagement and maintains their interest.
• Writing with coherence demonstrates professionalism and credibility.

Paragraph Structure

Paragraph structure is a critical element of coherent writing. It involves organizing your ideas and information into well-structured paragraphs, which helps convey your message effectively. In this section, we will explore the importance of paragraph structure, its components, and how to create cohesive paragraphs that enhance the overall coherence of your writing.

• 1.Topic Sentence: A well-structured paragraph begins with a clear and concise topic sentence. The topic sentence introduces the main idea or point of the paragraph, serving as a guide for the reader. It sets the tone and direction for the rest of the paragraph.

Example: Topic Sentence: “Proper nutrition plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.”

• 2.Supporting Sentences: Following the topic sentence, the supporting sentences provide evidence, explanations, examples, or arguments that support and develop the main idea. They expand upon the topic sentence and provide additional details or relevant information.

Example: Supporting Sentences:

• “A balanced diet rich in nutrients is essential for optimal physical and mental well-being.”
• “Eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins promotes good health.”
• “Furthermore, staying hydrated and avoiding excessive consumption of processed foods contributes to overall wellness.”
• 3.Transition Words or Phrases: Transition words or phrases help create coherence between sentences and paragraphs by establishing logical connections. They provide a smooth flow of ideas and aid in the progression of your thoughts.

Example: Transition Words/Phrases: “Moreover,” “In addition,” “Furthermore”

• 4.Closing Sentence: A well-structured paragraph concludes with a closing sentence that summarizes the main point and reinforces the coherence of the paragraph. It brings closure to the ideas presented and prepares the reader for the next paragraph.

Example: Closing Sentence: “By making mindful food choices and prioritizing proper nutrition, individuals can pave the way for a healthier and more vibrant life.”

• A well-structured paragraph begins with a clear topic sentence.
• Supporting sentences provide evidence and details to support the main idea.
• Transition words or phrases create coherence between sentences and paragraphs.
• A closing sentence summarizes the main point and provides closure.

Using Transition words/phrases

Transition words and phrases play a crucial role in enhancing coherence and facilitating the smooth flow of ideas in your writing. They act as bridges between sentences, paragraphs, and sections, guiding readers through the logical progression of your thoughts. In this section, we will explore the importance of using transition words and phrases, common types, and how they contribute to creating well-connected and cohesive writing.

• 1.Importance of Transition Words/Phrases: Transition words and phrases serve as signposts in your writing, indicating relationships between ideas and guiding readers through the logical structure of your content. They help create coherence by providing smooth transitions between sentences and paragraphs, making it easier for readers to follow your thoughts.
• 2.Common Types of Transition Words/Phrases: There are various types of transition words and phrases that you can use to establish different types of relationships between ideas. Here are a few commonly used ones:
• Addition: These transition words add information or ideas. Example: Additionally, Furthermore, Moreover
• Contrast: These transition words show a difference or contrast between ideas. Example: However, On the other hand, Nevertheless
• Cause and Effect: These transition words indicate the cause and effect relationship between ideas. Example: Therefore, Consequently, As a result
• Time: These transition words show the order or sequence of events. Example: First, Next, Finally
• Example: These transition words provide examples to support your points. Example: For instance, For example, Specifically
• 3.Placement of Transition Words/Phrases: To ensure coherence, it’s important to place transition words and phrases appropriately within your sentences and paragraphs. They can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence, depending on the intended effect and the relationship you want to establish.

Example: Original: “I enjoy playing soccer. I like basketball too.” Revised: “I enjoy playing soccer. Additionally, I like basketball too.”

• Transition words and phrases enhance coherence and guide readers through the logical structure of your writing.
• Common types of transition words/phrases include addition, contrast, cause and effect, time, and examples.
• Use transition words/phrases appropriately within your sentences and paragraphs to establish smooth transitions.

Repetition or Parallelism

Repetition or parallelism is a powerful tool in English grammar that promotes coherence by creating a sense of rhythm and balance in your writing. It involves using similar structures, words, or phrases to emphasize key ideas, create impact, and enhance the overall flow of your text. In this section, we will explore the importance of repetition or parallelism, its various applications, and how it contributes to cohesive and engaging writing.

• 1.Emphasizing Key Ideas: Repetition or parallelism can be used to highlight important concepts or themes in your writing. By repeating key words or phrases, you draw attention to specific ideas, reinforcing their significance and leaving a lasting impression on your readers.

Example: Original: “Education is important. It helps us gain knowledge and opens doors to opportunities.” Repetition: “Education is important. It helps us gain knowledge. It opens doors to opportunities.”

• 2.Creating Rhythm and Flow: Repetition or parallelism adds rhythm and flow to your writing. By structuring sentences or paragraphs with parallel structures, you establish a pattern that readers can easily follow. This rhythmic quality enhances coherence, making your writing more enjoyable and engaging to read.

Example: Original: “She enjoys swimming, hiking, and playing tennis.” Parallelism: “She enjoys swimming, hiking, and engaging in tennis matches.”

• 3.Balancing Ideas: Parallelism allows you to present ideas in a balanced and symmetrical manner. By using parallel structures, you create a sense of harmony and equality between related concepts, making your writing feel well-organized and coherent.

Example: Original: “To succeed, you need dedication, skills, and to work hard.” Parallelism: “To succeed, you need dedication, skills, and a strong work ethic.”

• 4.Avoiding Repetitive Language: Repetition can sometimes be unintentional and lead to redundancy in your writing. By consciously using parallelism, you can avoid repetitive language and add variety to your sentence structures, resulting in more polished and cohesive writing.

Example: Original: “She is talented, intelligent, and smart.” Parallelism: “She is talented, intelligent, and astute.”

• Repetition or parallelism emphasizes key ideas and adds impact to your writing.
• It creates rhythm and flow, enhancing the coherence of your text.
• Parallelism allows for balanced presentation of ideas and avoids repetitive language.

Consistency in tome and viewpoint

Consistency in tone and viewpoint is a crucial aspect of maintaining coherence in your writing. Tone refers to the attitude or emotion conveyed in your writing, while viewpoint refers to the perspective from which the information is presented. Consistency in both tone and viewpoint ensures that your writing remains focused, clear, and cohesive. In this section, we will explore the significance of consistency in tone and viewpoint, its impact on reader understanding, and tips for maintaining this consistency.

• 1.Establishing a Consistent Tone: A consistent tone sets the overall mood and voice of your writing. Whether it’s formal, informal, persuasive, or informative, maintaining a consistent tone throughout your piece enhances coherence. It helps readers connect with your message and understand the intended emotional or intellectual response.

Example: In an informative piece about climate change, maintaining a serious and urgent tone throughout will create coherence and emphasize the importance of the issue.

• 2.Maintaining a Singular Viewpoint: Consistency in viewpoint ensures that your writing maintains a clear and unified perspective. Choosing either first person (I, we), second person (you), or third person (he, she, they) and sticking to it avoids confusion and maintains coherence. Shifting viewpoints within a piece can disrupt the flow and confuse readers.

Example: If you start an essay discussing a topic from a personal perspective, it is important to maintain that first-person viewpoint throughout. Shifting suddenly to third person can create inconsistency and weaken the coherence of your writing.

• 3.Impact on Reader Understanding: Consistency in tone and viewpoint contributes to reader understanding. When readers are presented with a consistent tone, they can more easily grasp the writer’s intended meaning and emotional intent. Similarly, maintaining a singular viewpoint helps readers follow the narrative or argument without confusion.
• 4.Tips for Maintaining Consistency:
• Determine the appropriate tone for your piece before you start writing and ensure it remains consistent.
• Choose a singular viewpoint and stick to it throughout the entire piece.
• Review your writing for any shifts in tone or viewpoint and make necessary revisions to maintain coherence.
• Consider the audience and purpose of your writing to determine the most suitable tone and viewpoint.
• Consistency in tone and viewpoint enhances coherence in your writing.
• Establishing a consistent tone sets the mood and voice of your piece.
• Maintaining a singular viewpoint ensures clarity and prevents confusion.
• Consistency in tone and viewpoint contributes to reader understanding.

Use of Pronouns

The use of pronouns is an essential aspect of English grammar that contributes to coherence and clarity in writing. Pronouns are words that replace nouns, allowing for smoother and more concise communication. Understanding how to use pronouns correctly helps to avoid repetitive language, maintain coherence, and enhance the overall flow of your writing. In this section, we will explore the importance of using pronouns effectively, common pronoun types, and guidelines for their appropriate usage.

• 1.Avoiding Repetitive Language: One of the primary purposes of pronouns is to prevent the repetition of nouns in your writing. Instead of constantly repeating the same noun, pronouns allow you to refer back to previously mentioned subjects or objects, making your writing more concise and cohesive.

Example: Original: “John is a doctor. John helps patients. John is dedicated to his profession.” Revised: “John is a doctor. He helps patients and is dedicated to his profession.”

• 2.Common Pronoun Types: There are various types of pronouns, each serving a specific function in replacing nouns. Some common pronoun types include personal pronouns (e.g., he, she, they), possessive pronouns (e.g., his, hers, theirs), reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, herself, themselves), and demonstrative pronouns (e.g., this, that, these).

Example: Personal Pronouns: “She is an engineer. They work in the same company.” Possessive Pronouns: “The book is hers. The car is theirs.”

• 3.Agreement and Clarity: When using pronouns, it is crucial to ensure that they agree in number and gender with the nouns they replace. Maintaining consistency in pronoun usage promotes coherence and prevents confusion for the reader.

Example: Incorrect: “Each student should bring their own textbook.” Correct: “Each student should bring his or her own textbook.”

• 4.Antecedent Clarity: An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun refers back to in a sentence. It is essential to establish clear antecedents to avoid ambiguity and maintain coherence. Ensure that the pronoun’s reference is unambiguous and easily identifiable for the reader.

Example: Unclear: “Sarah and Jane went to the store. She bought some groceries.” Clear: “Sarah and Jane went to the store. Sarah bought some groceries.”

• Pronouns prevent repetitive language and contribute to coherence.
• Common pronoun types include personal, possessive, reflexive, and demonstrative pronouns.
• Ensure pronouns agree in number and gender with their antecedents.
• Establish clear antecedents to maintain clarity and avoid ambiguity.

Removing Abrupt shifts

Removing abrupt shifts in writing is crucial for maintaining coherence and ensuring a smooth flow of ideas. Abrupt shifts occur when there is a sudden change in topic, tone, perspective, or other elements, causing confusion and disrupting the reader’s understanding. In this section, we will explore the importance of removing abrupt shifts, identify common types of shifts, and provide strategies to maintain coherence throughout your writing.

• 1.Types of Abrupt Shifts: a. Topic Shifts: Abrupt changes in the subject matter or theme can confuse readers and disrupt the logical progression of your writing. It is essential to ensure that transitions between topics are smooth and clearly indicated.

b. Tone Shifts: Sudden shifts in tone can create jarring inconsistencies and affect the overall coherence of your writing. It is important to maintain a consistent tone throughout your piece, aligning it with the intended purpose and audience.

c. Perspective Shifts: Shifting viewpoints or perspectives without proper transitions can confuse readers. Ensure that you clearly establish and maintain a consistent viewpoint or perspective throughout your writing.

d. Time Shifts: Abrupt changes in time can lead to confusion and disrupt the chronological order of events. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to indicate shifts in time and maintain coherence.

• 2.Strategies to Remove Abrupt Shifts: a. Plan and Outline: Before you start writing, create a clear outline or structure that organizes your ideas. This helps you identify potential shifts and ensure a logical progression.

b. Use Transition Words and Phrases: Transition words and phrases act as signposts, guiding readers through the flow of your writing. Utilize them to create smooth transitions between ideas, topics, or perspectives.

c. Review and Revise: Regularly review your writing to identify any abrupt shifts. Look for inconsistencies in topic, tone, perspective, or time. Make revisions to create smoother transitions and maintain coherence.

d. Seek Feedback: Share your writing with others and ask for their feedback. Fresh perspectives can help you identify and address any abrupt shifts that may have gone unnoticed.

Example: Abrupt Shift: “I enjoy hiking in the mountains. The weather is beautiful. Speaking of music, I went to a concert last night.”

Revised: “I enjoy hiking in the mountains. The weather is beautiful. However, speaking of music, I went to a concert last night.”

• Abrupt shifts in writing can disrupt coherence and confuse readers.
• Common types of shifts include topic shifts, tone shifts, perspective shifts, and time shifts.
• Strategies to remove abrupt shifts include planning and outlining, using transition words and phrases, reviewing and revising, and seeking feedback.

Providing Context

Providing context is an essential aspect of writing that enhances coherence and reader comprehension. Contextual information helps readers understand the background, setting, or circumstances surrounding the subject matter. By offering relevant details, explanations, or examples, you can create a clearer picture and ensure that your writing is well-rounded and coherent. In this section, we will explore the importance of providing context, effective ways to incorporate it, and its impact on reader understanding.

• 1.Importance of Providing Context: Contextual information sets the stage for your writing, giving readers a better understanding of the subject matter. It helps establish relevance, clarifies the purpose, and allows readers to connect with the content more effectively. Without context, readers may feel lost or struggle to grasp the meaning of your writing.
• 2.Ways to Incorporate Context: a. Background Information: Introduce relevant background information that provides essential context for understanding the topic. This could include historical events, definitions of key terms, or a brief overview of related concepts.

b. Descriptive Details: Use vivid descriptions to paint a clear picture of the setting, characters, or objects involved. Descriptive details engage the reader’s senses and create a richer understanding of the context.

c. Examples and Illustrations: Use concrete examples, anecdotes, or illustrations to demonstrate how the topic or concept applies in real-life situations. This helps readers grasp the practical significance and relevance of the information.

d. Comparisons and Contrasts: Make comparisons or contrasts to familiar concepts or ideas to help readers relate to the new information. This allows them to establish connections and understand the context more easily.

• 3.Impact on Reader Understanding: Providing context ensures that readers can follow your ideas and arguments more effectively. It clarifies the purpose of your writing and helps readers make connections between different pieces of information. Contextual information also enhances engagement and reader interest by providing a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

Example: Original: “She was excited to receive the gift.” With Context: “She was excited to receive the gift, especially since it was her dream book that she had been longing to read for months.”

• Providing context enhances coherence and reader comprehension.
• Incorporate background information, descriptive details, examples, and comparisons to offer relevant context.
• Contextual information helps readers understand the purpose, relevance, and connections within your writing.

Using headings/sub-headings

Using headings and subheadings is a valuable technique for organizing and structuring your writing, enhancing coherence, and improving reader navigation. Headings provide a clear roadmap for your content, allowing readers to locate specific information quickly and easily. In this section, we will explore the importance of using headings and subheadings, effective strategies for their usage, and their impact on reader comprehension.

• 1.Organizing Content: Headings and subheadings help to organize your writing by breaking it into logical sections. This organization enhances coherence by presenting information in a structured and easily digestible format. It allows readers to navigate your content efficiently and locate specific details or sections of interest.
• 2.Creating Hierarchy and Structure: Headings and subheadings establish a hierarchical structure that guides readers through your writing. They provide an overview of the main ideas and subtopics, helping readers grasp the overall structure and flow of your content. This hierarchical structure contributes to coherence by presenting information in a logical order.
• 3.Improving Readability: By using headings and subheadings, you improve the readability of your writing. Breaking down long blocks of text into smaller, labeled sections makes the content more visually appealing and less overwhelming for readers. This improves comprehension and encourages readers to engage with your writing.
• 4.Enhancing Scannability: In today’s fast-paced world, many readers scan through content before reading it thoroughly. Headings and subheadings serve as signposts, allowing readers to quickly identify relevant sections or topics of interest. This scannability increases the likelihood of readers engaging with your content.
• 5.Consistency and Parallel Structure: When using headings and subheadings, maintaining consistency in their style, formatting, and level of detail is essential. This consistency contributes to coherence and provides a professional and polished look to your writing. Additionally, using parallel structure in headings and subheadings (e.g., starting each with a verb or noun phrase) creates a harmonious and cohesive structure.

Main Heading: Effective Study Techniques Subheading 1: Time Management Subheading 2: Note-taking Strategies Subheading 3: Active Reading Techniques Subheading 4: Review and Practice Methods

• Headings and subheadings help organize and structure your writing.
• They create a hierarchical framework and improve readability.
• Headings and subheadings enhance scannability and reader engagement.
• Consistency and parallel structure in headings and subheadings contribute to coherence.

Revising writing for coherence

Revising your writing for coherence is an essential step in creating a cohesive and effective piece of writing. Coherence refers to the logical flow and connection between ideas, ensuring that your writing is clear, understandable, and engaging for readers. In this section, we will explore the importance of revising for coherence, strategies to improve coherence in your writing, and tips for effective revision.

• 1.Importance of Revising for Coherence: Revising for coherence is crucial because it allows you to refine the structure and organization of your writing, ensuring that ideas flow smoothly and logically. Coherent writing enhances reader comprehension, improves the overall reading experience, and effectively conveys your intended message.
• 2.Strategies to Improve Coherence: a. Establish Clear Connections: Ensure that there is a clear link between sentences, paragraphs, and sections. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to signal relationships between ideas, such as “however,” “in addition,” or “on the other hand.”

b. Check Sentence Structure: Review your sentences for clarity and coherence. Make sure that each sentence relates directly to the main idea of the paragraph and contributes to the overall flow of your writing. Avoid excessively long or convoluted sentences that may confuse readers.

c. Use Paragraph Unity: Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea or topic. Ensure that all sentences within a paragraph support and develop that main idea, creating a sense of unity. Consider reorganizing or removing sentences that digress from the main point.

d. Create Logical Progression: Arrange your ideas in a logical order that allows readers to follow your argument or narrative easily. Consider using headings and subheadings to provide a clear roadmap for your content.

e. Read Aloud: Reading your writing aloud can help identify any awkward or disjointed sections. Listen for smooth transitions and check if the ideas flow naturally from one sentence or paragraph to the next. This technique helps to pinpoint areas that require revision for improved coherence.

• 3.Tips for Effective Revision: a. Take Breaks: Give yourself some distance from your writing before revising. Taking breaks helps you approach the revision process with fresh eyes and a clearer perspective.

b. Seek Feedback: Share your writing with others and ask for feedback. Different perspectives can highlight areas that may lack coherence or clarity. Consider incorporating constructive feedback to improve the coherence of your writing.

c. Edit and Polish: Once you have revised for coherence, review your writing for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. These technical aspects also contribute to the overall coherence and professionalism of your work.

• Revising for coherence improves the flow and logical connection of ideas in your writing.
• Use strategies like clear connections, sentence structure review, paragraph unity, logical progression, and reading aloud.
• Take breaks, seek feedback, and edit for grammar and punctuation to enhance coherence.

Join the discussion Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Read also...

Revising writing for coherence with Examples

• Departments
• For Students
• For Faculty
• Book Appointment

Flow and Cohesion

• Reverse Outline
• Paper Skeleton
• Creating a Research Space
• Personal Statements
• Literature Reviews

Our Writing Center gets a lot of students who are concerned about the  flow  of their writing, but this can mean a lot of different things. When we talk about "flow" we mean  cohesion  or how ideas and relationships are communicated to readers. Flow can involve the  big-picture  (how parts of the essay fit together and the way the sequence of these parts affect how readers understand it) and the  sentence-level  (how the structure of a sentence affects the ways meanings and relationships come across to readers). This page has an overview of ways to think about revising the  flow  of an essay on both of these levels.

Big-Picture Revision Strategies

Reading out-loud.

Oftentimes, you can identify places that need some extra attention sharing your writing with a friend, or reading it out loud to yourself. For example, if it's hard to actually say a sentence at a normal conversational pace, this might indicate that there's something you can change about the structure that will make it easier to say (and probably, easier to understand). A few more tips:

• When you read out-loud, make sure to  slow down . If you are talking too fast, you might fill-in gaps or otherwise not notice things you want to change. You also want to give yourself time to process what you're saying  as you say it.
• If there's nobody around, there are also many computer programs that can convert text to speech and read to you, including  Microsoft Word .
• Take notes while you read. While you might want to fix things as you read, if you're worried about flow, it's also good to read your essay all the way through so that you can hear how parts fit together. If you don't want to interrupt your reading, you can take notes by doing things like putting a checkmark in the margins, using a highlighter, or making a list on a separate sheet of paper.

Structure and Sequence

Sometimes issues of flow and cohesion might actually be structural. It's good to reflect on the structure of an essay, the order of the different parts, and how they all fit together. If you want to revise the structure of your essay, consider trying one of the following activities.

Sign-Posting and Transitions

A great way to help readers comprehend the flow of ideas is include things like sign-posts and transitions. A sign-post is basically just language to point out different parts of the essay for readers in order to help them navigate your ideas. For example,  strong topic sentences  are a good as sign-posts because they tell readers what upcoming paragraphs are going to be about.  Transition sentences  can help readers understand how the ideas you were just discussing in a previous paragraph relate to what's coming up with the next paragraph. Here are a couple questions that can help you brainstorm sign-posting statements. After you brainstorm, you can then revise these sign-posting sentences so they fit better with your writing.

• Try starting a sentence by writing "In this paragraph, I will discuss..." After you complete this sentence, you can then revise it to make it fit better with your writing.
• "In the previous paragraph I discuss [purpose of paragraph 1] and this helps better understand [purpose of paragraph 2] because..."
• This paragraph supports my argument because..."
• While I discuss [previous idea or concept] above, I will now talk about [new idea or concept] because..."

Revision on the Sentence-Level

Verbs, or stuff we do.

A sentence seems clear when its important actions are in verbs. Compare these sentences where the actions are in bold and the verbs are UPPERCASE:

Because we  LACKED  data, we could not  EVALUATE  whether the UN  HAD TARGETED  funds to areas that most needed assistance. Our  lack  of data PREVENTED  evaluation  of UN  actions  in  targeting  funds to areas most in  need  of  assistance .

Nominalization

Turning a verb or adjective into a noun is called a “nominalization.” No element of style more characterizes turgid writing, writing that feels abstract, indirect, and difficult, than lots of nominalizations, especially as the subjects of verbs.  

Our request IS that you DO a review of the data.     vs. We REQUEST that you REVIEW the data.    

Try this:  when editing, underline the actions in your sentences.  Are those actions in the form of verbs?  If not, you might try rewriting your sentences to turn those actions into the main verbs in the sentence.

Active and Passive Verbs

Some critics of style tell us to avoid the passive everywhere because it adds a couple of words and often deletes the agent, the “doer” of the action.  But in fact, the passive is sometimes the better choice.  To choose between the active and passive, you have to answer two questions:

• The president  was rumored  to have considered resigning.
• Those who  are found  guilty can  be fined .
• Valuable records should always  be kept  in a safe.
• Because the test  was not done , the flaw  was not corrected .
• The weight given to industrial competitiveness as opposed to the value we attach to liberal arts   will determine  our decision.  
• Our decision  will be determined   by the weight we give to industrial competitiveness as opposed to the value we attach to the liberal arts .

Try this:   We need to find our passive verbs before we can evaluate whether or not to change them.  While you’re editing, try underlining all the “to be” verbs, since these are often paired with other verbs to make passive constructions.  The verbs you’re looking for are: am, are, is, was, were, be, become, became.  Once you’ve identified these verbs, check to see if they are necessary, or if the sentence would be clearer or stronger without them.  Example:  “There is one explanation in the story…” vs “The story explains…”

Writing is more coherent when readers are able to make connections across sentences and paragraphs. On the sentence level, this can include when the last few words of one set up information that appears in the first few words of the next.  That’s what gives us our experience of flow.

• Begin sentences with information familiar to your readers.  Readers get that information from two sources:  first, they remember words from the sentence they just read.  Second, readers bring to a sentence a general knowledge of its subject.  In a paper on black holes, for example, readers would find references to “astronomers”  familiar, even without prior mention.
• End sentences with information that readers cannot anticipate.  Readers prefer to read what’s easy before what’s hard, and what’s familiar and simple is easier to understand that what’ new and complex.  

Compare these two passages:

Try this:  While editing, check for these words: this, these, that, those, another, such, second, or more. Writers often refer to something in a previous sentence with these kinds of words. When you use any of those signals, try to put them at or close to the beginning of the sentence that you use them in.

Here are some tips to help your writing become more precise and cut out extra words.

• Delete what readers can infer.  This can include redundant categories like “period of time,” “pink in color,” or “shiny in appearance.
• Can you make sense of the negatives in this sentence?

Except when you have failed to submit applications without documentation, benefits will not be denied.

This handout contains excerpts from Joseph M. Williams'  Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace ( New York: Longman, 2000).

In an age of minimalism, here’s a celebration of more, more, more

In ‘all things are too small,’ washington post book critic becca rothfeld argues for surplus in love and art.

Printed matter permeates my premises.

To my spouse’s chagrin, books and magazines in our house pile up on shelves and tables, in corners and drawers. The basement has boxes of New Yorker issues dating to the beginning of my subscription, in 2002. The hauling of these boxes — to six residences across three states — is my decades-long performance-art piece: “The Sunk-Cost Follies.”

And so I read Becca Rothfeld’s evisceration of Marie Kondo and her decluttering cronies, in an essay from her new book, with vindication. In Kondo’s abominable advice to rip out and keep only certain favorite pages from your books before getting rid of them, Rothfeld diagnoses the problem as the Philistine’s assumption that “language is a vehicle for the transfer of information, never a source of pleasure in its own right.”

Rothfeld, The Washington Post’s prolific and provocative nonfiction book critic, “lapsed academic philosopher” and recent winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, never forgets that language is a pleasure source. She celebrates those writers who would “touch every last word” and skewers those who replace “explanation with intimation,” opting for less when more will always do.

“ All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess ” is Rothfeld’s first book, and in it she stakes out her dissent from the culture’s “adventures in parsimony.”

“At every turn,” she writes, “we are inundated with exhortations to smallness: short sentences stitched into short books, professional declutterers who tell us to trash our possessions, meditation ‘practices’ that promise to clear the mind of thought and other detritus, and nostalgic campaigns for sexual restraint.”

Across 12 essays — five of them previously published — Rothfeld makes an impassioned case for cacophony.

Her plea for abundance opens with an insistence on the ability — the imperative — to dislike or discriminate. She argues that political commitments to egalitarianism (she’s described herself as a “Rawlsian socialist”) needn’t commit one to a correspondingly democratic attitude toward every cultural or interpersonal endeavor. We don’t have to love all our friends (or art) the same: “The kind of creatures for whom love and art mean anything at all are the kind with biases and aversions.”

Rothfeld’s language is often extravagant, luxuriating in alliteration and internal rhyme: “The oozing oddity of embodiment, in particular, requires hyperbole.”

That sentence is from an essay in which, at play on the page, she ties together the work of horror-film master David Cronenberg, philosophical ideas about the nature of truly transformative experience and the first flush of her romance with the “alien entity” who “was eventually to become my husband.”

She argues that Cronenberg’s “chief innovation,” in films like “Dead Ringers” and “The Fly,” is the recognition that “whether lusting and falling in love are more like body horror or more like reincarnation is merely a matter of emphasis.”

This is Rothfeld at her very best, dancing across media, experience and scholarship to deliver a surprising conclusion. That essay, “The Flesh, It Makes You Crazy,” is the first of three in which she considers the problem of mere consent in light of her call for romantic abandon: “We cannot know what sort of metamorphosis will ensue if the sex is as jarring as we can only hope it will be” and “we cannot consent to total metamorphosis.”

For the narrators of what Rothfeld, in another essay, calls “the fragment novel,” there is no change of any kind — much less total — on the table.

In these short books of short sentences, by writers such as Jenny Offill and Kate Zambreno, Rothfeld sees “an artwork from which the art has been removed, a body drained of all its blood and carnality.” And she laments, in their rise in popularity, a Kondo-fication of American fiction.

Rather than psychic verisimilitude — that these books are a representation on the page of being too sad and defeated to care — Rothfeld sees a “performance of profundity.”

“Why clarify when it is so much more efficient to nod at clarification?” she asks. “Why think when you can mimic thinking?”

But isn’t it also true that we think in fragments?

Or maybe that “we” is doing a lot of work here. There are those of us without Rothfeld’s seemingly full control of her ideas and syntax; we sacks of synapses sometimes need a tool for when too many axons light up at once.

Some of us less able to make the fragments cohere derive use from certain meditative “practices” (the scare quotes are Rothfeld’s), which come under sustained attack in “Wherever You Go, You Could Leave,” the book’s second-longest essay. Here I’ll disclose that, though I once shared Rothfeld’s skepticism of this kind of thing, I have more recently found relief via an approach called “Mindful Self-Compassion.” (The quotes, in this case, are mine, and I cringe to imagine Rothfeld rolling her eyes.)

Rothfeld opens her chapter on mindfulness with her own bit of autobiography: “My first year of college, I attempted suicide and was promptly hastened home.” To return to school, she had “to undergo something cumbersomely called ‘cognitive behavioral therapy.’” (The scare quotes, again, are hers.)

At her therapist’s urging, she started running. She went to the movies. Both helped. She also tried to “practice mindfulness.” It didn’t help. At all.

“Non-judgmental awareness,” the goal of the meditation that was suggested to her, is Rothfeld’s own special hell. It “sounded to me indistinguishable from depression or desolation or whatever it was that rendered the minutes too long to endure and their inhabitants too listless to detest even detestable things.”

By now, we understand why. Asking Rothfeld to surrender her judgmental faculties is like asking Steph Curry to stop shooting threes. It’s fundamental to her self-conception, and she’s great at it.

In this light, her allergy to the Mindfulness-Industrial Complex is easy to understand. But that allergy can lead her into caricature. She looks for the worst, and she finds it.

It’s difficult to define mindfulness as a coherent movement in the first place. Rothfeld uses as her avatar Jon Kabat-Zinn, whose groovy baby boomer ramblings are ripe for parody. She then traces — not entirely persuasively — a connection between mindfulness and “mind cure,” the turn-of-the-20th-century movements that included Christian Science and New Thought, “in which mental ministrations have masqueraded as balms for the body.”

Rothfeld quotes, but does not take, the off-ramp that philosopher William James offered on this question: “Mind-cure gives to some of us serenity, moral poise, and happiness.” She is less forgiving: “If mindfulness were presented not as a panacea or a metaphysical system but as one technique among many for keeping the wolves at bay, I could look on it kindly.”

Depending on your framing, mindfulness does not have to be presented as either a panacea or a full cosmology. Rothfeld’s own cognitive-behavioral therapist, in the wake of the cataclysmic episode that opens the essay, presented mindfulness “as one technique among many.” She could look on it kindly but chooses not to.

A hint as to why might be found elsewhere in this book. In her paean to Norman Rush’s novel “Mating,” Rothfeld says that “the drama of Rush’s opus is emotional, yes, but it is also and primarily intellectual.” His characters catch “cherished ephemera in the net of their relentless overanalysis.”

The drama of reading Rothfeld is primarily — thrillingly — intellectual, and her analysis is indeed relentless. It’s impossible to do justice to each of her arguments in the space allotted, but I’ve aimed to evoke the pleasure of reading “All Things Are Too Small”: Having just recovered from a dazzling insight, we might be provoked to argue with her (one can imagine she likes it that way), and we are never bored.

Sebastian Stockman is a teaching professor in the English department at Northeastern University and the writer of an infrequent newsletter, “A Saturday Letter.”

All Things Are Too Small

Essays in Praise of Excess

By Becca Rothfeld

Metropolitan. 285 pp. $27.99

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.