Coherence-&-cohesion

Cohesion&coherenceAgrammaticaland/orlexicalrelationshipbetweenthedifferentelementsofatext.Amoreexplicittextualsignal.Aseriesofsentencesthatdevelopamainidea.Itrelatestothelogicoftheorganisationofcontent.Howarethetwolinked?TheuseofcohesivedevicesnaturallyleadstoacoherentpieceofwritingHowdoweachievecohesion&coherenceinacademicwriting?ReferencingSubstitutionSynonymsor‘repackaging’phrasesEllipsisConjunctionsAvoiding‘empty‘subjectsNounphrases(Ex2.8)Informationstructure:Theme&rhemedevelopment‘Informationstructureconcernsthewayamessageisdeliveredinaclauseorsentenceandhowwritersgetoutofonesentenceandintothenext.’(Alexander,2008)Thethemeofasentencewilloftencontain‘old’informationwhilsttherhemedevelopsthemessageandsomaycontain‘new’informationToachievethe‘smoothflowandlogicaldevelopment’(Alexander,2008)thinkaboutthefunctionofthesentence.Whatisthemainmessagewearetryingtogetacrossandwhereisitlocated?Recap:thematicdevelopment•Readersneedfamiliarinformation(usuallythetopic)inmindbeforetheyreadsomethingnewaboutit.•Familiarorgiveninformationisusuallyinthethemesofsentences•Rhemesusuallycontainnewinformationwhichtemporarilythefocusofattention•Detailedexplanationsincomplexphrasesorclausesareeasierforreaderstounderstandiftheyareinrhemes•Informationinrhemesreappearsinsubsequentthemesinsummaryformbecauseithasmovedtothebackground.•Thismovementofinformationfromrhemetothemelinksthedevelopingtexttowhathasgonebeforeandhelpstomaintainthetopic•(Alexander,2008)Ourexampletextp3932.2?1.Doesitadheretothetheme/rhemedevelopmentofwriting?2.Gooduseofnounphrases?Isthemainideainanounphrase?3.Isthe‘old’informationrepackaged?4.Arethereanyemptysubjects?5.Istherereferencing?6.Anyopportunitiesforellipsis/substitution?7.Anyothercommentse.g.style?formality?Couldpartsbewritteninamorecohesiveway?Anyellipsisorcouldtherebe?Bibliography•Alexander,O.(2008).EAPEssentials:Ateacher’sguidetoprinciplesandpractice•Pan,L.andD.Block.(2011).‘Englishasa“globallanguage”inChina:Aninvestigationintolearners’andteachers’languagebeliefs.’