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CohesionandCoherenceCohesioncanbethoughtofasallthegrammaticalandlexicallinksthatlinkonepartofatexttoanother.Thisincludesuseofsynonyms,lexicalsets,pronouns,verbtenses,timereferences,grammaticalreference,etc.Forexample,'it','neither'and'this'allrefertoanideapreviouslymentioned.'Firstofall','then'and'afterthat'helptosequenceatext.'However','inaddition'and'forinstance'linkideasandargumentsinatext.Coherencecanbethoughtofashowmeaningsandsequencesofideasrelatetoeachother.Typicalexampleswouldbegeneralparticular;statementexample;problemsolution;questionanswer;claimcounter-claim.Whatdoescohesionmean?Youmightthinkofcohesionasameansofestablishingconnectionswithinatextatallsortsofdifferentlevels,e.g.,section,paragraphs,sentencesandevenphrases.Howiscohesiondifferentfromcoherence?Itisdifficulttoseparatethetwo.However,thinkofcoherenceasthetextmakingsenseasawholeatanideaslevel,andcohesionasrathermoremechanicallinksatalanguagelevel.Youcanimaginethatitispossibleforapieceofwritingtocontainplentyofcohesionyetlittlecoherence.Cohesionisthegluethatholdsapieceofwritingtogether.Inotherwords,ifapaperiscohesive,itstickstogetherfromsentencetosentenceandfromparagraphtoparagraph.Cohesivedevicescertainlyincludetransitionalwordsandphrases,suchastherefore,furthermore,orforinstance,thatclarifyforreaderstherelationshipsamongideasinapieceofwriting.However,transitionsaren'tenoughtomakewritingcohesive.Repetitionofkeywordsanduseofreferencewordsarealsoneededforcohesion.CohesionDevicesLexicallevel:RepetitionWordfamilyrepeatedSynonyms,antonyms,otherwordrelationsThematicallyrelatedwords(lexicalset)Substationswithone/onesGrammaticallevel:Reference:article,pronouns,normalizationSubstitutionofclauseelementsusingso,not,do/does/did,etcEllipsisofclauseelementsLinkingwords:conjunctionsandconjunctsComparativesVerbtenseRhetoricaltechniquesQuestionandanswerParallelismCoherenceWhensentences,ideas,anddetailsfittogetherclearly,readerscanfollowalongeasily,andthewritingiscoherent.Theideastietogethersmoothlyandclearly.Toestablishthelinksthatreadersneed,youcanusethemethodslistedhere.RepetitionofaKeyTermorPhraseThishelpstofocusyourideasandtokeepyourreaderontrack.Example:Theproblemwithcontemporaryartisthatitisnoteasilyunderstoodbymostpeople.Contemporaryartisdeliberatelyabstract,andthatmeansitleavestheviewerwonderingwhatsheislookingat.SynonymsSynonymsarewordsthathaveessentiallythesamemeaning,andtheyprovidesomevarietyinyourwordchoices,helpingthereadertostayfocusedontheideabeingdiscussed.Example:Mythsnarratesacredhistoriesandexplainsacredorigins.Thesetraditionalnarrativesare,inshort,asetofbeliefsthatareaveryrealforceinthelivesofthepeoplewhotellthem.PronounsThis,that,these,those,he,she,it,they,andweareusefulpronounsforreferringbacktosomethingpreviouslymentioned.Besure,however,thatwhatyouarereferringtoisclear.Example:Whenscientificexperimentsdonotworkoutasexpected,theyareoftenconsideredfailuresuntilsomeotherscientisttriesthemagain.Thosethatworkoutbetterthesecondtimearoundaretheonesthatpromisethemostrewards.TransitionalWordsTherearemanywordsinEnglishthatcueourreaderstorelationshipsbetweensentences,joiningsentencestogether.Wordssuchas“however”,“therefore”,“inaddition”,“also”,“but”,“moreover”,etc.Example:Ilikeautumn,andyetautumnisasadtimeoftheyear,too.Theleavesturnbrightshadesofredandtheweatherismild,butIcan'thelpthinkingaheadtothewinterandtheicestormsthatwillsurelyblowthroughhere.Inaddition,thatwillbetheseasonofchappedfaces,toomanylayersofclothestoputon,anddayswhenI'llhavetoshovelheapsofsnowfrommycar'swindshield.SentencePatternsSometimes,repeatedorparallelsentencepatternscanhelpthereaderfollowalongandkeepideastiedtogether.Example:(fromaspeechbyPresidentJohnF.Kennedy)Andso,myfellowAmericans:asknotwhatyourcountrycandoforyou--askwhatyoucandoforyourcountry.