Coherence and Cohesion

Meeting 9
(Oct 29th, 2019)
 COHERENCE

• A piece of writing is coherence if it is

clearly organised and has a logical
sequence of ideas.
 COHERENCE

• A text is coherence whe it makes sense.

It makes sense when:
- We can understand what the text is about.
- We can translate it.
- We can paraphrase it.
- We can summarize it.
- We can explain the meaning to someone else.
 COHERENCE

•Coherence is enhanced if...

the reader can the text is the text is

easily discern organized in a organized in a
what the text is way that way that is
about answers the familiar to the
reader’s reader
questions
 Example coherence paragraphs:

The following paragraphs represent weak

and strong examples of coherence.
 Coherence
• Example of an incoherent text
He worked hard but earned little money and
died very poor at the age of 35. Two years
later his father took him to play at concerts
in the great cities of Europe

Does it make sense?

 Coherence
• Another example...
The Austrian composer Mozart was a musical
genius. He has got a swimming pool. It actually
tingles on your skin to tell you it’s working. Water
would then come out of fountains such as the one
shown here. And that is why dogs still chase
rabbits.

Is it coherent?
A TEXT TO BE COHERENT
MUST REFER TO THE SAME TOPIC
 COHESION

• A paragraph or section of text is cohesive

if the sentences are well structured, well
linked together and there is no
unnecessary repetition.
 COHESION
• Cohesion is the glue that holds a piece of writing
together. In other words, if a paper is cohesive, it sticks
together from sentence to sentence and from paragraph
to paragraph.
• Cohesive devices certainly include:
- Reference - Ellipsis
- Substitution - Repetition
- Connectors - Synonymy
COHESION
COHESION
 COHESION
• Repetition of Key Words
• We can tie sentences or paragraphs together by
repeating certain key words from one sentence
to the next or from one paragraph to the next.
This repetition of key words also helps to
emphasize the main idea of a piece of writing.
For example, in the following paragraph, notice
how many times the words owned and
ownership are repeated:
COHESION
 COHESION
• By repeating the words owned and
ownership throughout the paragraph, the
writer has tied each sentence to each
other and has clearly indicated what the
main idea of the paragraph is. In this case,
the main idea is ownership of something.
And what exactly is being (or not being)
owned? By repeating the word land, the
author shows us that the entire main idea
is ownership of land.