Cohesion and Coherence

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

In this section, we are going to be talking about the real purpose of academic writing – and
inflating weak ideas, obscuring poor reasoning, inhibiting clarity, and being an impenetrable
fog isn’t it! In fact, Calvin has it backward – he is talking about the opposite of coherence.

The primary reason for writing an essay is to formulate and organize an informed, coherent
and sophisticated set of ideas on an important issue. This can be achieved by seeing writing
through different perspectives:

1. Grammar and vocabulary

2. Sentence structures
3. Weaving language into cohesive, unified and coherent paragraphs
4. Weaving paragraphs into coherent essays
5. Ensuring that you have answered the question for the target audience in a sufficiently
comprehensive and critical way.

We discussed sentence structure in an earlier section. Now, let’s look at cohesion:

Cohesion
If a text has cohesion, the clauses within the text are connected logically; they work together
and flow smoothly. Cohesion operates between clauses, sentences and paragraphs, and it is
achieved with appropriate use of structure, grammar and vocabulary. Therefore, cohesion
exists at the clause level of essays.

To achieve cohesion, every clause should be linked in some way to the clause or sentence
before and after it. As a writer, it is your responsibility to clearly show how these clauses are
linked by using cohesive devices. There are various types and terms for cohesive devices,
including signal words, signposts, linking words, or transition words, but they all have the
same function – to make explicit connections between clauses and sentences so that:

1. the function or purpose of each clause/sentence is easy to understand.

2. to ensure your paragraphs stay on topic (show unity).

Examples of cohesive devices:

This / These / They / It As such, / As a result, / Therefore,

On the other hand, / In contrast, / For example, / For instance, / such as /

However, including

Firstly, Finally, because / due to

This essay will argue that… In conclusion,

Further, / In addition, This essay will examine…

Smith reports that… In other words, / This means that…

These cohesive devices indicate:

• something mentioned in a previous clause (it / this / these / they)

• contrasting ideas (however / in contrast / on the other hand)
• location in a sequence (firstly / further / next / then / finally)
• the thesis statement (This essay will argue…)
• additional supporting points (further / in addition)
• the type of supporting information cited (reports / claims)
• conclusion or effect (As such, / as a result, / therefore,)
• supporting examples (for example / such as / including)
• causal relationship (because / due to)
• the start of the concluding paragraph (in conclusion)
• the outline of discussion points (This essay will examine…)
• elaboration or explanation of ideas (in other words, / this means that..)

Without these cohesive devices, the reader can only guess at the function / purpose of your
clauses. Remember these cohesive devices when reading the section on paragraphs – they
are essential to achieving coherence.
Examples of cohesion:
Read the following paragraphs carefully and pay careful attention to the cohesive devices
in bold. If we removed those words, there would be no obvious connection between the
sentences (other than the keywords), and the reader would have to guess the function of each
sentence. This may or may not be possible, but the point is: As the writer, it is your
responsibility to make your ideas clear to the reader.

Here is a sample paragraph which would be appropriate in a strong IELTS essay:

“Poor management of ground water resources is a major issue all over the world. This is
important because one-third of the world’s population depends on this ground water, which
has taken thousands of years to develop. However, because these reserves of water are very
large, they are being used without any thought for the future. The problem is that, world-
wide, people are using significantly more of this water than can be replaced. As a result, the
world’s water capital is being steadily depleted, and this is going to have disastrous
consequences for the future if management plans are not implemented soon.”

Here is another sample paragraph that would be appropriate for a university research
essay (without the citations):

“One explanation for the intelligence failure in October, 1973 is the impact of incremental
analysis. This suggests that although there was a clear picture of Egyptian and Syrian
capabilities and intentions only months earlier, new information over time impacts on later
assessments. For example, a 20 December 1973 CIA report explains that analysts examine
events as they happen but frequently do not review or consciously recall the earlier
assessments. This indicates a failure to effectively manage analytic processes within
organizations in order to cope with inherent human cognitive limitations. In
contrast, Richards Heuer, a former CIA analyst, argues that receiving small amounts of new
information over time can in fact result in the assimilation of that information into existing
views such that ‘[n]o one item of information may be sufficient to prompt the analyst to
change a previous view.’ As such, cognitive issues arising from incremental analysis can
also have an effect on assessments opposite to that proposed by the CIA report. “

Coherence:
Coherence is about connections at the idea level. A text is coherent if the ‘ideas’ make sense
to the reader – it is all about meaning.
You can contribute to (or lose) coherence in many ways: Linguistically, your vocabulary
choices in writing, and your vocabulary choices / pronunciation when speaking, are the areas
where communication is most likely to break down. For example coherence can be lost if:

• You use too many passive structures. It is important for readers to have a clear
understanding of the agent in a sentence. Start with active structures then switch to
passive. When the agent changes, switch back to active again.
• You use too many reference words such as pronouns (it / they) and determiners (this /
that). It is important to use these types of words, but if you use them too much, the person
or thing they refer to can be obscured.

However, in academic writing coherence is mainly achieved by fully developing your

arguments so that the reader can understand and hopefully be persuaded by them.

Okay, so how do you achieve coherence in academic writing? It is actually very simple.
Academic writing in English follows certain conventions that your readers will be expecting
to see. Perhaps they won’t be looking for these things consciously, but they will know that
something is wrong if they are missing. Fulfilling the expectations of your readers is
essential, and confusion results when you don’t meet expectations. Remember, confusing
your readers in academic writing is ALWAYS bad!

What do readers expect to see?

• They will be expecting deductive structure. This is a progression of ideas from general
statements to specific detail, and it applies to paragraphs and essays as a whole.
• Every paragraph in an academic essay consists of essential functions which contribute to
deductive structure. You need to break your paragraphs down into their component
functions to ensure they contain the necessary content.
• Each one of these essential functions needs to be identified with signposts (cohesive
devices) so that the reader clearly understands which function you are using.

Deductive structure:
In English academic writing, paragraphs and essays are organised using deductive
structure. In simple terms, deductive structures begin with a generalization and become more
detailed as they progress to a specific conclusion. For example:

Generalisation All people are mortal.

More specific Socrates is a person.

 Specific conclusion Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

Why is deductive structure important in English academic writing? It is not important

because it is a ‘superior’ form of logic. You must learn to structure your paragraphs
deductively because it is expected. When we see something that we do not expect, it takes
some time to make sense of what we are seeing. So, if an essay marker is expecting to see a
generalized statement at the beginning of a paragraph indicating the topic of the paragraph,
but instead they see a specific idea which does reflect the topic of the entire paragraph, there
will be confusion:

Specific conclusion Socrates is mortal.

Observation Socrates is a person.

Generalized statement All people are mortal.

Notice that if this were the structure of an academic paragraph, the assessor would
immediately (and incorrectly) assume that the paragraph topic was “Socrates”. However, he
is only an example used to make the point that all people are mortal (also note the flaw in the
logic!).

Example of lack of cohesion and coherence

in a text:
“Depletion of ground water is going to have disastrous consequences for the future if
management plans are not implemented soon. The world’s water capital is being steadily
depleted. World-wide, people are using significantly more water than can be replaced.
Reserves of water are very large and people are using them without any thought for the
future. One-third of the world’s population depends on ground water. Ground water has
taken thousands of years to develop. Poor management of ground water resources is a major
issue all over the world.”

In the above paragraph, the topic is easy enough to understand: there is an issue with the use
of ground water around the world. However, there are three problems for the reader:

1. The only thing linking the sentences together is the word “water” – we don’t know ‘how’
the sentences are linked in terms of their purpose or function. In other words, the
‘argument’ seems to be a list of statements without any logical progression.
2. This paragraph is written inductively (from specific to general), and this is a problem
because your lecturers / essay graders are expecting a deductive structure.

I won’t explain coherence any further here because these methods of achieving coherence in
your academic writing are the essence of paragraphs and essays explained in the next sections