Coherence and Cohesion in Academic Writing
Summary
TLDRThis video from EAPFoundation.com explains the concepts of coherence and cohesion in academic writing. It explores how cohesion operates at a micro-level, focusing on linking words and sentences, while coherence works on a macro-level to ensure logical flow. Key methods to improve cohesion include using reference words, repeated ideas, transition signals, substitution, and ellipsis. For coherence, the video emphasizes organizing ideas clearly. It also reviews how IELTS and TOEFL tests assess writing for coherence and cohesion, offering practical tips to improve these skills.
Takeaways
- đ Coherence and cohesion are key aspects of academic writing, each contributing to how a text is understood and flows.
- 𧩠Cohesion deals with micro-level aspects like word and sentence connections, similar to how puzzle pieces fit together.
- đ Reference words, repeated ideas, transition signals, substitution, and ellipsis are methods to improve cohesion.
- đ§ Coherence relates to the macro-level of a text, ensuring logical order and clarity, like how a complete jigsaw puzzle presents a clear picture.
- đ Creating an outline before writing can help improve coherence by organizing ideas logically.
- đĄ Using reference words like 'this', 'that', and 'it' links different parts of the text, improving cohesion.
- đ Repeating key ideas or using synonyms helps maintain cohesion by reinforcing important concepts.
- đŠ Transition signals (like 'first', 'second', 'finally') help readers follow the flow of ideas and understand relationships between them.
- đ Substitution replaces repeated words to avoid redundancy and improve cohesion.
- âïž Ellipsis omits unnecessary words when meaning is clear, contributing to cohesion.
Q & A
What is the difference between cohesion and coherence in writing?
-Cohesion relates to the micro-level of a text, focusing on how words and sentences link together, while coherence relates to the macro-level, dealing with the logical organization and progression of ideas in a text.
What are the five main methods to achieve good cohesion?
-The five main methods to achieve good cohesion are: using reference words, repeated words or ideas, transition signals, substitution, and ellipsis.
Can you give examples of reference words and how they are used?
-Reference words include 'this,' 'these,' 'that,' 'it,' 'they,' and others. They refer to something else in the text and help link ideas. For example, 'this' can refer back to a concept introduced earlier.
How can repeated words or ideas contribute to cohesion?
-Repeated words or ideas help reinforce key concepts throughout a text, maintaining a consistent focus. For example, repeating the word 'cohesion' or its synonym 'coheres' keeps the topic central.
What are transition signals and how do they enhance cohesion?
-Transition signals are words or phrases that show the relationships between ideas, such as 'for this reason,' 'similarly,' or 'however.' They guide the reader through the logical flow of the text.
What is substitution in writing, and can you provide an example?
-Substitution is replacing a word or phrase with another to avoid repetition. For example, in the sentence 'The graph on the left shows calories, while the one on the right shows exercise,' 'one' substitutes for 'graph.'
What is ellipsis, and how does it function in writing?
-Ellipsis occurs when words are omitted because their meaning is clear from the context. For example, 'A fourth is substitution' omits 'important feature,' as it's implied.
What are some strategies to improve coherence in writing?
-To improve coherence, organize ideas clearly using outlines, ensure paragraphs are connected with clear topic sentences, and maintain logical progression of ideas.
How do the IELTS and TOEFL exams assess coherence and cohesion in writing?
-The IELTS assesses coherence and cohesion by evaluating logical organization, use of cohesive devices, and clear progression. TOEFL focuses on organization, unity, and clear connection of ideas.
What is peer editing, and how can it help improve writing coherence?
-Peer editing involves having someone else review your writing to ensure it makes sense. This helps identify unclear areas and improves the overall coherence of the text.
Outlines
đ Introduction to Coherence and Cohesion
This paragraph introduces the concepts of coherence and cohesion, explaining how these are essential in academic writing. Cohesion is likened to the micro-level aspects (e.g., words and sentences linking together), while coherence is related to the macro-level structure (e.g., how ideas are logically ordered). The tutorial also highlights the importance of cohesive devices like reference words, repeated ideas, transition signals, substitution, and ellipsis. The overall goal is to ensure clarity and flow in writing, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer's ideas.
đ Substitution and Ellipsis in Writing
This section delves into substitution and ellipsis, explaining their roles in achieving cohesion. Substitution involves replacing words with others to avoid repetition, such as using 'one' instead of 'graph.' Ellipsis refers to omitting words when the meaning is clear. Examples are provided to demonstrate both techniques. For instance, 'A fourth is substitution' omits 'important feature,' relying on context for clarity. Both methods help streamline writing while maintaining meaning.
đ Coherence and Organisation of Ideas
This paragraph explores the concept of coherence in more depth, emphasizing the need for logical progression and clear organisation of ideas. Strategies to improve coherence include creating outlines before writing, ensuring topic sentences relate to thesis statements, and checking for unity within paragraphs. Additionally, peer editing and considering the audience's knowledge can enhance clarity. Coherence is essential for making the text understandable, especially in structured forms like essays or reports.
âïž Coherence and Cohesion in IELTS and TOEFL Exams
Here, the criteria for assessing coherence and cohesion in the IELTS and TOEFL exams are discussed. The IELTS writing test evaluates task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical accuracy. Higher band scores require logical organisation, appropriate use of cohesive devices, and clear progression. Similarly, the TOEFL writing test assesses coherence through organisation, unity, and progression. Both tests emphasize the importance of cohesion through the use of transition signals, reference words, substitution, and ellipsis.
đ„ Conclusion and Call to Action
This concluding paragraph wraps up the tutorial, summarizing the main points on improving coherence and cohesion in academic writing. The narrator encourages viewers to subscribe and explore other videos for further learning. The emphasis is on the practical applications of the techniques discussed, especially in preparation for academic exams like IELTS and TOEFL.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄCoherence
đĄCohesion
đĄReference words
đĄRepeated words or ideas
đĄTransition signals
đĄSubstitution
đĄEllipsis
đĄThesis statement
đĄUnity
đĄIELTS and TOEFL criteria
Highlights
Introduction to coherence and cohesion, focusing on the micro and macro levels of writing.
Cohesion involves linking words and sentences together, much like fitting pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Coherence ensures the overall structure of the writing makes sense and is logically ordered.
Five key methods for achieving cohesion: reference words, repeated words or ideas, transition signals, substitution, and ellipsis.
Reference words, such as 'this', 'that', and 'it', help link ideas by referring back to previous points in the text.
Repeated words or synonyms help to reinforce ideas and maintain a consistent flow in writing.
Transition signals, such as 'first', 'second', 'however', and 'as a result', guide readers through the structure and relationships between ideas.
Substitution allows you to replace earlier words or phrases with shorter alternatives to avoid repetition.
Ellipsis helps to avoid redundancy by omitting words that are implied and unnecessary.
Coherence is improved by organizing ideas clearly, using thesis statements, topic sentences, and outlines.
Outlines can help writers organize their thoughts before writing, and reverse outlines can check for coherence after writing.
The IELTS and TOEFL exams assess coherence and cohesion as part of their writing criteria, emphasizing logical organization and appropriate use of cohesive devices.
The IELTS Band 9 emphasizes using cohesion naturally, without attracting attention, and managing paragraphing effectively.
TOEFL criteria focus on unity, progression, and coherence, requiring clear connections between ideas.
Effective writing includes appropriate use of cohesive devices, such as transition signals, without overusing them.
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'.
Hereâs 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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