Coherence and Cohesion in Academic Writing
Summary
TLDREl video ofrece una visión detallada sobre la cohesión y la coherencia en la escritura académica, dos conceptos fundamentales para la comprensión y la estructuración de textos. Se definen ambos términos, donde la cohesión se relaciona con el nivel micro de un texto, es decir, cómo las palabras y oraciones se unen, mientras que la coherencia se refiere a las características a nivel macro que hacen que un texto tenga sentido como un todo. Para lograr una buena cohesión, se sugieren cinco métodos principales: uso de palabras de referencia, repetición de palabras o ideas, señales de transición, sustitución y elipsis. Por otro lado, la coherencia se mejora organizando y progresando lógicamente en la presentación de ideas, asegurándose de que el lector pueda entenderlas. Además, se exploran los criterios de evaluación de la escritura en los exámenes IELTS y TOEFL, destacando la importancia de estos aspectos para obtener una calificación alta. El video es una herramienta valiosa para estudiantes y académicos en busca de perfeccionar sus habilidades de escritura académica.
Takeaways
- 📚 **Cohesión y Coherencia**: La cohesión se relaciona con el nivel micro del texto, es decir, las palabras y oraciones y cómo se unen. La coherencia, por otro lado, se relaciona con las características a nivel macro que ayudan al texto a tener sentido como un todo.
- 🔗 **Métodos para una buena cohesión**: Se logra a través de palabras de referencia, repetición de palabras o ideas, señales de transición, sustitución y elipsis.
- 🔄 **Palabras de referencia**: Palabras como 'este', 'esos', 'ellos', que hacen referencia a algo dentro del texto y son esenciales para la cohesión.
- 🔄 **Repetición de palabras o ideas**: Reutilizar palabras clave y frases para mantener la cohesión y enfatizar ideas.
- 🔄 **Señales de transición**: Palabras o frases que indican la relación entre ideas y son cruciales para la cohesión.
- 🔄 **Sustitución**: Reemplazar palabras o frases previamente mencionadas con otras para evitar la repetición y mantener la cohesión.
- 🔄 **Elipsis**: Omitir palabras cuando el significado queda claro, lo que mejora la fluidez del texto.
- 📈 **Mejorar la coherencia**: Relacionado con la organización y progresión de ideas en un texto. Se logra mediante la creación de un esquema o esbozo antes de escribir.
- 📋 **Esquema del texto**: Incluye el estado de tesis, oraciones temáticas, ideas y detalles de apoyo, y es fundamental para una buena coherencia.
- 👥 **Considerar al lector**: Es importante tener en cuenta quién leerá el texto, su conocimiento previo y el propósito de la escritura para asegurar la coherencia.
- 📝 **Revisión por pares**: Leer el texto con otro estudiante para verificar la coherencia y comprensión del material.
- 🏆 **Criterios del IELTS y TOEFL**: Estos exámenes evalúan la coherencia y cohesión como parte de sus criterios de evaluación, lo que incluye la organización lógica de ideas y el uso adecuado de dispositivos de cohesión.
Q & A
¿Qué es la cohesión en el texto?
-La cohesión se refiere al nivel micro del texto, es decir, a las palabras y oraciones y cómo se unen o se vinculan entre sí. Se considera que los elementos coherentes funcionan juntos o encajan bien.
¿Cómo se logra una buena cohesión en la escritura?
-Una buena cohesión se logra a través de cinco métodos principales: palabras de referencia, palabras o ideas repetidas, señales de transición, sustitución y elipsis.
¿Qué son las palabras de referencia y cuáles son algunos ejemplos?
-Las palabras de referencia son palabras que no tienen sentido por sí solas, ya que se refieren a algo más en el texto. Algunos ejemplos incluyen 'este', 'estos', 'ese', 'esos', 'eso', 'ellos', 'ellas', 'él', 'ella' y 'cual'.
¿Qué son las señales de transición y cuáles son algunos ejemplos?
-Las señales de transición son palabras o frases que indican las relaciones entre ideas. También se llaman frases de conexión o dispositivos cohesivos. Algunos ejemplos incluyen 'por esta razón', 'debido a', 'como resultado', 'consecuentemente', 'similarmente', 'justo como', 'sin embargo' y 'mientras que'.
¿Qué es la sustitución y cómo funciona?
-La sustitución es cuando reemplazamos, en otras palabras, una palabra o grupo de palabras anteriores con otra palabra o grupo de palabras. Es similar a las palabras de referencia y ayuda a evitar la repetición y a mantener la cohesión en el texto.
¿Qué es la elipsis y cómo se utiliza en la escritura?
-La elipsis es cuando dejamos fuera palabras porque el significado sigue siendo claro. Se utiliza para evitar la redundancia y hacer que el texto sea más conciso sin perder la claridad.
¿Qué es la coherencia y cómo se relaciona con la organización del texto?
-La coherencia se refiere a las características a nivel macro del texto que ayudan a que tenga sentido como un todo. Incluye la organización y progresión de ideas en el texto y cómo estas son claras y fáciles de entender para el lector.
¿Cómo se puede mejorar la coherencia en la escritura?
-Para mejorar la coherencia, se debe asegurar que las ideas estén bien organizadas y que puedan ser comprendidas por el lector. Una forma de ayudar con la organización de ideas es crear un esquema o outline antes de escribir.
¿Qué es un outline y cómo ayuda a mejorar la coherencia?
-Un outline es un plan previo a la escritura que generalmente incluye la declaración de tesis, oraciones temáticas, ideas de apoyo, detalles de apoyo, como razones, ejemplos, hechos, estadísticas, etc. Ayuda a organizar las ideas y a que el producto final sea más coherente.
¿Cómo se evalúa la coherencia y cohesión en los exámenes IELTS y TOEFL?
-Los exámenes IELTS y TOEFL evalúan la coherencia y cohesión como parte de sus criterios de evaluación. En IELTS, se evalúa la secuenciación lógica de la información y la gestión de la cohesión, mientras que en TOEFL se busca una organización bien hecha, unidad, progresión y coherencia en el texto.
¿Cuáles son los niveles de cohesión y coherencia en la puntuación del IELTS?
-En IELTS, los niveles varían desde el 9, que es casi un nivel de hablante nativo, hasta el 5, donde puede haber falta de claridad o apropiación en la referencia y la sustitución. Cada nivel tiene criterios específicos que miden la organización lógica de la información, el uso de dispositivos cohesivos y la claridad en la referencia.
¿Por qué es importante la coherencia y cohesión en la escritura académica?
-La coherencia y cohesión son cruciales en la escritura académica porque permiten que el texto tenga sentido como un todo, sea lógicamente ordenado y conectado, y sea claro y consistente para el lector. Ayudan a que el lector siga los principales ideas y comprenda mejor el propósito y los puntos clave del texto.
Outlines
📚 Introducción a Coherencia y Cohesión
Este párrafo introduce la lección sobre cohesión y coherencia, proporcionando una breve definición de ambos términos. Se menciona que la cohesión se relaciona con el nivel micro del texto, es decir, las palabras y oraciones y cómo se unen. La coherencia, en contraste, se relaciona con las características a nivel macro del texto, que ayudan a que tenga sentido como un todo. Se describen cinco métodos principales para lograr una buena cohesión: palabras de referencia, palabras o ideas repetidas, señales de transición, sustitución y elipsis.
🔍 Detalles sobre Cohesión y Coherencia
Este párrafo se enfoca en la cohesión y cómo se logra. Se discuten las palabras de referencia, que son palabras que no tienen sentido por sí solas y hacen referencia a algo en el texto. Se da un ejemplo de texto para ilustrar el uso de palabras de referencia y se mencionan otras formas de lograr cohesión, como la repetición de palabras o ideas, señales de transición, sustitución y elipsis. Además, se proporcionan ejemplos y se explica cómo estos elementos ayudan a que el texto sea más fácil de seguir para el lector.
📝 Coerencia y Estrategias para Mejorarla
Este párrafo explora la coherencia, que se relaciona con la organización y la progresión de ideas en un texto. Se destaca que es más difícil lograr una buena coherencia que una buena cohesión. Para mejorar la coherencia, se sugiere crear un esquema o esbozo antes de escribir, que incluya la declaración de tesis, las oraciones temáticas, ideas y detalles de apoyo. Se discuten las técnicas para asegurar que las ideas sean comprensibles para el lector, incluyendo la consideración del público y el propósito del texto, y la revisión por pares.
📊 Criterios de Evaluación del IELTS y TOEFL
Este párrafo examina los criterios de evaluación del IELTS y TOEFL en términos de coherencia y cohesión. Se describen los aspectos que se evalúan en cada nivel de calificación, desde el 9 hasta el 2, y se destacan las características que se buscan en la escritura para obtener una calificación alta. Se mencionan elementos como la organización lógica de la información, el uso adecuado de dispositivos de cohesión y la importancia de una estructura clara y un progreso aparente en la escritura.
🎓 Conclusión y Recomendaciones Finales
Este párrafo resume lo aprendido en el video, destacando la importancia de la coherencia y cohesión en la escritura académica. Se sugiere suscribirse al canal o explorar otros videos para aprender inglés académico. Se enfatiza que la coherencia y cohesión son aspectos clave en la escritura y que seguir las recomendaciones del video puede mejorar significativamente la calidad del trabajo escrito.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cohesión
💡Coherencia
💡Palabras de referencia
💡Palabras repetidas o ideas
💡Señales de transición
💡Sustitución
💡Elípsis
💡Organización de ideas
💡Esquema
💡Revisión por pares
💡Evaluación IELTS y TOEFL
Highlights
Cohesion and coherence are key components of academic writing.
Cohesion refers to how words and sentences link together at the micro-level of text.
Coherence relates to the macro-level features that make a text make sense as a whole.
Good cohesion can be achieved through reference words, repeated words or ideas, transition signals, substitution, and ellipsis.
Reference words like 'this', 'these', 'that', 'those', 'it', 'they', 'them', 'he', 'she', and 'which' help in achieving cohesion.
Repeated words or ideas reinforce cohesion by emphasizing key concepts.
Transition signals, also known as linking phrases or cohesive devices, indicate the relationships between ideas.
Substitution involves replacing earlier words with different words to avoid repetition and maintain cohesion.
Ellipsis is the omission of words where the meaning remains clear, contributing to conciseness.
Coherence is about the logical ordering and connection of ideas, making them clear and consistent.
Creating an outline before writing can help organize ideas and improve coherence.
A clear thesis statement, topic sentences, and summary are crucial for essay coherence.
Checking that all paragraph ideas relate to the topic sentence ensures unity and coherence.
Considering the audience and purpose can make writing more understandable and coherent.
Peer editing is a valuable method for improving coherence by gaining an outside perspective.
IELTS and TOEFL exams assess writing for coherence and cohesion as part of their scoring criteria.
IELTS criteria for high scores include logical organization, clear progression, and appropriate use of cohesive devices.
TOEFL criteria emphasize well-organized writing with unity, progression, and coherence.
Avoiding redundancy and digression, and ensuring clear connections between ideas are important for TOEFL scores.
The video provides a comprehensive guide to improving academic writing for IELTS and TOEFL exams.
Transcripts
This tutorial is brought to you by EAPFoundation.com
THE website for all your academic English needs.
So in this video we'll be looking at coherence and cohesion.
And I'll be focusing on four different things.
I'll begin with a brief definition of those terms
so that we can understand what they are,
then look in detail at ways to achieve good cohesion,
ways to improve your coherence,
and finally look at how the IELTS and TOEFL exams
grade students' writing for coherence and cohesion.
So let's begin with some definitions.
Cohesion relates to the micro-level of the text
that is the words and sentences
and how they join or link together.
The related adjective is cohesive,
which means united and working together
or fitting well together.
You can think of cohesion as like pieces of a jigsaw
which need to fit together perfectly.
Coherence, in contrast, relates to the macro level features of a text
which help it to may sense as a whole.
The related adjective is coherent
which means logically ordered and connected,
clear and consistent, and understandable.
And you can think of coherence as like the whole jigsaw puzzle
which will have a clear overall picture
when all of the pieces are put together
Now let's look at cohesion in more detail.
Good cohesion is achieved through the following five main methods:
reference words,
repeated words or ideas,
transition signals,
substitution
and ellipsis.
Let's now look at each of these in turn,
beginning with reference words.
What are reference words?
Well these are words which don't make sense on their own
because they refer to something else in the text.
Examples of reference words are
this, these, that, those, it, they, them,
he, she and which.
Let's look at a short example text
to help us understand reference words.
I'll use the same text later on to help us understand
the other ways to achieve good cohesion.
Cohesion is an important feature of academic writing.
It can help ensure that
your writing coheres or sticks together,
which will make it easier for the reader
to follow the main ideas in your essay or report.
You can achieve good cohesion
by paying attention to five important features.
The first of these is repeated words.
A second key feature is reference words.
A third one is transition signals.
A fourth is substitution.
The final important aspect is ellipsis.
So those are three examples of reference words.
Let's now consider repeated words or ideas.
So this is the same text as before,
but tidied it up a little bit.
And there are several examples of repeated words or ideas
which I'll highlight now.
So we have the noun 'cohesion', which is used twice,
along with the verb form 'coheres'.
The word 'writing' is used twice, as well as
the phrase 'essay or report', which represents the idea of writing
it's a synonym.
And we have the phrase 'important features',
and 'key feature' - key is a synonym of important
so it's the same idea -
and 'important aspect' - aspect again is a synonym of feature
so it's the same idea:
important features, key feature, important aspect.
So thirdly let's consider transition signals.
What are transition signals?
These are words or phrases
which signal the relationships between ideas.
They are also called linking phrases,
or signpost phrases, or cohesive devices.
Let's look at some examples.
So Cause transitions: 'for this reason', 'because of'.
Effect transitions: 'as a result', 'consequently'.
Comparison transitions: 'similarly', 'just like'.
Contrast transitions: 'however', 'whereas'.
And there are many more examples for each of these four types,
and there are also many other transition types:
there are transitions to show examples,
transitions to show order of importance,
to show chronological order,
to give a list,
to show addition or to give alternatives.
Let's again look at this text
to highlight the transition signals.
So here the transition signals are all related
to giving a list of the five important features
that help give good cohesion.
So we have first, second, third, fourth and final.
Next let's consider substitution.
What is substitution?
This is when we substitute - in other words replace -
an earlier word or words with
another word or words and in some ways
it's similar to reference words.
So here's a couple of examples.
The graph on the left shows average calorie intake by age,
while the one on the right shows daily exercise levels.
Here the word 'one' is an example of substitution
because it substitutes for the word 'graph'.
Here’s another example.
Drinking alcohol before driving is banned in many countries
since doing so can seriously impair
one's ability to drive safely.
So here 'doing so' is an example of
substitution because it substitutes
for the phrase 'drinking alcohol before driving'.
And there was one example of substitution
in the text we just saw: 'A third one',
which means a third important feature.
So finally let's look at ellipsis.
What is ellipsis? Well this is when we
leave out words because the meaning is clear.
So here's an example sentence
which has far too many words because we can
leave many of these out and the
meaning will still be clear.
The first graph shows a high calorie intake for 20 to 25-year olds,
a lower intake for 25 to 30 year-olds,
and a very low intake for those over 30.
And the example passage we
just saw also has an example of ellipsis: 'A fourth is substitution'.
So this means a
fourth important feature is substitution
and the words 'important feature' have been left out.
So let's now consider coherence.
So we saw a definition earlier.
First of all let's remind ourselves
of what coherence is.
So coherence relates to the organisation and
the progression of ideas in a text.
It also relates to how clear and easy the ideas are
to understand.
In many ways it's much more difficult to learn how to
achieve good coherence than to achieve good cohesion.
The problem with coherence is
there are so many ways that we can
organise ideas, so many ideas that we can
use in the first place.
And ideas that might seem perfectly clear to you,
the writer, can be very confusing to the reader.
How then can we improve coherence?
Well since it relates to the
organisation and progression of ideas,
we need to make sure our ideas are well organised.
And as it also relates to
how easy the ideas are to understand,
we need to make sure ideas can be understood
by the reader.
One way to help with the organisation of ideas is to create an
outline before writing.
So an outline will normally include the thesis statement,
topic sentences, supporting ideas,
supporting details - reasons,
examples, facts, statistics and so on.
Many students don't like to use an outline,
especially for short timed writing,
but even if you just spend one or two
minutes organising your ideas,
the end product can be much more coherent.
So an outline is used before writing.
Some writers like to create a reverse outline after writing.
So this is the same as an outline,
but it's written when the writing has finished.
And doing this allows you to see
whether your ideas are well organised or not.
Make sure that you have a clear
thesis statement, topic sentences and summary,
if it's an essay.
Remember I said before that coherence is about the
macro level features.
So a topic sentence will help a paragraph to make sense,
and a thesis statement and the summary
in the conclusion will make the whole essay make sense.
And if it's a report
or something more structured rather than an essay,
then the aims and headings will
serve the same purpose.
You should also check that all ideas in a paragraph
relate to the topic sentence, and you can
do this when the writing is finished or
using the outline.
Another word for this is 'unity'.
And you can also check that all of
the topic sentences relate to the thesis statement.
So how can we make sure the
ideas can be understood by the reader?
Well one way is to consider the audience.
Who will be reading what you're writing?
What do they already know? What do they not know?
You should also consider the purpose.
For example if your purpose is
to explain how something is done but
your writing really describes instead of explains,
then the person reading it is
going to be confused.
The final way to make sure your ideas can be understood
by the reader is to ask somebody else,
for example another student, to read through it
and see if it makes sense.
This is called 'peer editing'.
Of course, it's not always possible, for example in an exam essay.
But for other types of writing,
this is something that you can do
to help make sure your ideas can be understood.
Finally let's look at the
criteria for the IELTS and TOEFL tests.
So there are four areas that the IELTS
writing test assesses: task achievement,
coherence and cohesion, lexical resource,
and grammatical range and accuracy.
So coherence and cohesion is one of these four.
What we're going to do now is to
look at the criteria in more detail and
pull out features of coherence and cohesion.
And these are the publicly
available versions of the criteria which
you can find online.
The maximum score in the IELTS test, as you probably know, is 9.
And this is near native speaker level.
Uses cohesion in such a way that
it attracts no attention.
Skilfully manages paragraphing.
This doesn't really give us much information.
But if we look at the criteria for band 8, we begin to
understand a bit more what's being assessed.
Sequences information and ideas logically.
Manages all aspects of cohesion well.
Uses paragraphing
sufficiently and appropriately.
So while there's not much detail for cohesion here,
we can understand that for coherence,
what's needed is logical organisation of ideas,
and appropriate paragraphing.
These are the criteria for band 7.
Logically organises information and ideas.
There is clear progression throughout.
Uses a range of cohesive devices appropriately
although there may be some under- or over-use.
So in terms of coherence we have clear progression.
And these are all things
I talked about earlier:
logical organisation, having clear paragraphs
with clear topic sentences, and clear progression.
And here we begin to understand
the details of cohesion.
It's important to have a range of
cohesive devices, which remember is just
a synonym for transition signals.
It's also important to make sure that
cohesive devices - the transition signals -
are used appropriately, which means using
the right ones in the right places,
and also important not to use too many or
too few. A common mistake for students
learning English is to use too many
transition signals. You don't need them
for every sentence.
These are the criteria for band 6.
I won't read all of these out, but I'll highlight the third one:
may not always use referencing
clearly or appropriately.
So this here is talking about reference words: he, she, it, them
and so on, which I mentioned earlier.
And then looking at band 5,
again I won't read all of these out because many
of these are repeating the same ideas,
but again if you look at the third point:
may be repetitive because of lack of
referencing and substitution.
So in other words substitution is used as needed.
So you can see all of the points here about
cohesion are the ones I've mentioned before:
using transition signals, using reference words,
using substitution.
Let's look now at the rubric, in other words
the criteria, for the TOEFL test.
Again, these are publicly available criteria,
so you can find them yourself online.
And the maximum score on the TOEFL writing is 5.
So these here are the criteria for
the TOEFL at level 5. And unlike with the
IELTS test these are not separated into
different areas, even though if you look
at them closely, which we'll do now, you'll see
that they do in fact address different areas.
So these are the parts
which relate to coherence and cohesion:
is well organised, displays unity,
progression and coherence.
And then looking at level 4:
is generally well organised,
displays unity, progression and coherence
though it may contain occasional
redundancy digression or unclear connections.
And there's similar ideas at level 3:
displays unity, progression and coherence,
though connection of ideas may
occasionally be obscured.
And also level 2:
inadequate organisation or connection of ideas.
So again let's use these to
understand what's being assessed in
terms of coherence and cohesion.
So in order to get a good score we need
writing which is well-organised with no
redundancy, in other words we don't have
more ideas than we need. And we also need
unity, which we talked about earlier,
which means having all of the sentences
related to the topic sentence - and the
opposite of this is digression, when you
move away from the topic to something
which is unrelated.
And we also need clear progression.
So again all of these ideas are ones which we mentioned
earlier when looking at coherence.
In terms of cohesion the rubric is much simpler:
it just talks about connection of ideas.
This doesn't mean the things
we've talked about are not important
because in order to connect ideas you
need reference words, repeated words or ideas,
transition signals, substitution and ellipsis.
So it's not that those things
aren't important, it's just that they're
not mentioned explicitly in the rubric.
So summing up what we've learned in
this video, first of all we had a short
definition of coherence and cohesion,
then we saw ways to improve cohesion in
your writing using reference words,
repeated words or ideas,
transition signals, substitution and ellipsis.
We saw how to improve coherence by organising
your ideas and making your ideas clear
to the reader, and how the IELTS and
TOEFL exams grade your work for
coherence and cohesion.
If you liked the video please subscribe to the channel
or check out some of the other videos
I've made for learning academic English.
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