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Cohesive Devices

Cohesive Devices
12 COMMEN
BY CHRISTOPHER PELL
TS

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Introduction
Cohesive devices, sometimes called
linking words, linkers, connectors,
discourse markers or transitional words,
are one of the most misunderstood and
misused parts of IELTS Writing.

Cohesive devices are words like ‘For

example‘, ‘In conclusion‘, ‘however‘ and
‘moreover‘. Together with coherence,
cohesion provides 25% of your marks in
both parts of the Writing test. However,
most students have not been taught how
to use them effectively.

This post will look at how and, more

importantly, when we should use them.

What are cohesive

devices?
Cohesive devices tell the reader what we
are doing in a sentence and help to guide
them through our writing. They signal to
the reader what the relationships are
between the different clauses, sentences
and paragraphs.

Let’s look at two examples below.

The public transport in this

city is unreliable and it’s

cheap.

The public transport in this

city is unreliable but it’s

cheap.

There are two cohesive devices in the

sentences above: ‘and’ and ‘but’. Both give
the reader different signals and change
the meaning of the sentence.

The Nrst sentence tells the reader that ‘it’s

cheap’ is simply being added to the
previous information, however, the second
sentence tells the reader that they are
giving a contrasting opinion to the Nrst
part of the sentence by using the word
‘but’.

In other words, the second sentence is

saying ‘it’s unreliable (which is bad) but
the good thing about it is it’s cheap, so I
don’t mind using it.’ Simply using the word
‘but’ conveys that whole message without
needing to literally say it.

This makes our message more succinct

and our writing easier to read. But, does
that mean we should use as many
cohesive devices as possible?

Overusing Cohesive
Devices
The biggest mistakes many students
make is to use cohesive devices in nearly
every sentence.

If you look at the IELTS Writing Marking

Criteria it states that a Band 7 ‘uses a
range of cohesive devices appropriately
although there may be some under-/over-
use‘. This is typical of a student who
knows the meaning and how to use
cohesive devices, but thinks that using
them as much as possible will get them a
high mark.

However, using them too much often

leads to students using them incorrectly.
It is stated for Band 5 that ‘makes
inadequate, inaccurate or over use of
cohesive devices‘. In my experience, most
students get a Band 5 in this category for
this reason. They think that using them as
much as possible will get them a high
mark, but don’t consider the meaning and
how each of them should be used in a
sentence.

Band 8 and 9 students tend to only use

cohesive devices when necessary and
they use them appropriately and
effectively i.e. correct meaning and
grammar. In fact, many students have
criticised Band 9 answers because ‘they
don’t have enough discourse markers’.
Take a look at the extract below from an
academic journal (The Power of Human
Rights by Stephen C. Ropp).

This extract is about 200 words long. How

many cohesive devices can you see?

Most IELTS students will not be able to

produce writing to this very high standard,
but you should remember that you don’t
get extra marks for lots of cohesive
devices, the most important thing is using
them accurately (grammar) and
appropriately (meaning).

Meaning and Grammar

The next problem students have is
learning long lists of cohesive devices and
not learning the meaning of each word or
how it should be used in a sentence. If
you use the wrong word it confuses the
reader and this lowers your mark for both
coherence and grammar. It is better to
use no word than use a word incorrectly.

My advice is to not learn long lists of

words. The list below is more than you will
ever need and learning more than this will
probably just confuse you or take up time
that could be used to learn something
else. In a 250 word essay you might give
2-3 examples at the most, so why would
you learn 10 different ways to give an
example? You only have one conclusion,
so it seems like a waste of time to learn 5
different ways to do this.

Learn just the words you need and learn

them 100%. By 100% I mean that you
know exactly what that word means,
when it should be used in a sentence and
how it should be used in a sentence. Until
you know all of this 100%, don’t use it.

Finally, don’t try to use very complicated

words and expressions, if you are not
already comfortable with the simple
terms. Being able to use ‘and‘ or ‘but‘
effectively is much better than trying to
use more complicated words incorrectly.
Again, look at some academic texts or
good IELTS sample answers; simple
words are used more often than not.

How to Improve
You can’t simply learn a long list of words
and then hope you can use these correctly
in an essay. That would be like Ronaldo
telling you how he scores so many goals
and thinking you can do the same thing by
just listening to him.

Also, you can’t look at just one example

sentence and hope to learn everything you
need to know about that word.

If you want to improve do the following:

1. Reading is the number one way to

learn new words. Good writers read a
lot, it’s that simple. Pick a topic you
are interested in and read a little
every day. 20 minutes is enough.
Note down any cohesive devices and
how they are used in each sentence.
2. Check the meaning and grammar of
each word on sites like the British
Council or BBC. You will Nnd lots of
explanations there and example
sentences.
3. Practice using these and then have
your writing checked by an
experienced IELTS teacher.

If you do the following, you will slowly

learn how to use cohesive devices
effectively. I wish there was a faster way,
but like most things in life, hard work and
practice is the best and only solution.

Below is a list of more cohesive devices

than you will every need to do well on the
IELTS Writing test.

If you want to see how I use them in

sample IELTS answers check out our
model answers for Writing Task 1 and
Writing Task 2.

I hope you found this article useful. If you

have any questions or comments, join the
conversation on our Facebook page.

For more help with IELTS please check out

IELTS Preparation- The Ultimate Guide.

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saloua $

Thank you so much it’s very usuful and direct to

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Cristine $

Very helpful. Thank you so much

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Selma $

Thanks alot this information was very useful

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Hamza $

Plz give me PPT slides on this topic…plzzzz

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