HOW TO WRITE A COHERENT, COHESIVE, AND SUBSTANTIAL ESSAY
Summary
TLDRThis video script teaches how to develop an academic essay by focusing on coherence and cohesion. It explains the importance of a well-structured paragraph with a topic sentence that supports the thesis statement. The script emphasizes the use of minor details to elaborate on key points and the inclusion of personal analysis to create a cohesive paragraph. It also highlights the role of logical bridges and concluding sentences to maintain focus and ensure a coherent essay.
Takeaways
- π **Structure of an Essay**: The script emphasizes the importance of understanding the structure of an essay, which includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
- π **Paragraph Composition**: Each paragraph should consist of a topic sentence, minor details, and a concluding sentence to maintain coherence and cohesion.
- π‘ **Topic Sentence**: The topic sentence introduces the main idea of the paragraph and should align with the thesis statement, presenting one of its key points.
- π **Coherence**: Coherence is achieved by ensuring that the topic sentences in each paragraph are connected to the thesis statement through the use of keywords.
- π **Minor Details**: These details elaborate on the key points introduced in the topic sentence and should include evidence from various sources and personal analysis.
- π **Cohesion**: Cohesion is the quality that makes a paragraph understandable by presenting connectedness in sentence level, achieved through specific details and cohesive devices.
- π **Intertextuality**: The script mentions the importance of intertextuality, which is creating relationships between texts and generating understanding across different references.
- π **Logical Flow**: Paragraphs should maintain a logical flow, starting and ending with the same focus, achieved through the use of transitional devices and pronouns.
- βοΈ **Concluding Sentence**: The concluding sentence synthesizes the paragraph, often rephrasing the topic sentence and using transitional devices without additional citations.
- π **Essay Development**: The script guides on how to develop an essay by putting different pieces together in a cohesive and coherent manner, ensuring each part supports the overall thesis.
Q & A
What is the purpose of a topic sentence in a paragraph?
-The topic sentence indicates the general idea that the paragraph will address. It presents a sub-topic that supports the thesis statement and is typically the first sentence of a paragraph.
How does the topic sentence relate to the thesis statement?
-The topic sentence presents one of the key points from the thesis statement, ensuring coherence in the essay by maintaining a connection between the thesis and each body paragraph.
What are the three key components of a paragraph?
-A paragraph is comprised of the topic sentence, minor details, and a concluding sentence.
What is the difference between coherence and cohesion in essay writing?
-Coherence refers to the connectedness of ideas at the paragraph level, while cohesion refers to the connectedness at the sentence level, making the text easy to follow and understand.
How can you ensure coherence in an essay?
-To ensure coherence, the key points from the thesis statement should appear in the topic sentences of each body paragraph, maintaining consistency and connectedness throughout the essay.
What are minor details in a paragraph, and why are they important?
-Minor details elaborate on the topic sentence, providing specific support such as examples, citations, or analysis. They are important for adding depth and clarity to the main point.
What is intertextuality, and how is it applied in paragraph writing?
-Intertextuality is a literary device that creates relationships between different texts or references. In essay writing, it involves connecting various sources or pieces of information to build a cohesive argument.
Why should a paragraph not be just a compilation of citations?
-A paragraph should include the author's own analysis and voice to avoid being just a collection of citations. This adds original insight and personal engagement with the topic.
What are logical bridges, and how do they help in paragraph writing?
-Logical bridges ensure that the same idea flows from one sentence to the next, maintaining coherence. This is often achieved through cohesive devices like keywords, pronouns, and transitional phrases.
What is the purpose of the concluding sentence in a paragraph?
-The concluding sentence synthesizes the entire paragraph, often rephrasing the topic sentence and using transitional devices to link to the next idea or paragraph.
Outlines
π Understanding Paragraph Structure for Essay Writing
The first paragraph introduces how to develop and elaborate on an essay after planning through academic outlining. It explains that constructing an essay involves assembling pieces to form a cohesive whole. The paragraph focuses on understanding the structure of a paragraph, which is crucial for a coherent essay. A paragraph is made up of a topic sentence, minor details, and a concluding sentence. The topic sentence introduces the idea of the paragraph and supports the thesis statement. The essay's thesis statement contains three key points, and each body paragraph's topic sentence should align with one of these key points. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of coherence, ensuring that the ideas from the thesis are connected to each topic sentence.
π Ensuring Coherence and Cohesion in Paragraphs
The second paragraph dives deeper into ensuring coherence and cohesion in essay paragraphs. It explains that after achieving coherence (connection of ideas between paragraphs), cohesion is needed to ensure the sentences within a paragraph are logically connected and flow smoothly. Minor details are used to elaborate on the topic sentence, offering specific examples or evidence from sources like books, research, and personal experiences. It stresses the importance of including the writer's own analysis and maintaining intertextuality, a technique that connects multiple texts or references. Logical bridges between sentences using cohesive devices (such as pronouns or transitions) ensure that paragraphs don't lose focus and remain unified in their ideas.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Topic Sentence
π‘Thesis Statement
π‘Coherence
π‘Cohesion
π‘Minor Details
π‘Major Details
π‘Intertextuality
π‘Logical Bridges
π‘Transitional Devices
π‘Concluding Sentence
Highlights
Learning how to plan an essay through academic outlining helps prepare for essay development.
Understanding paragraph structure is essential for writing a cohesive and coherent essay.
A paragraph is comprised of a topic sentence, minor details, and a concluding sentence.
The topic sentence indicates the main idea of the paragraph and connects it to the thesis statement.
Coherence ensures the ideas in the essay are connected and flow logically between paragraphs.
The topic sentence of each body paragraph should reflect the key points in the thesis statement.
Example thesis statement: 'Reduction of carbon emissions can be done by changing non-renewable resources, driving behavior, and vehicle models.'
The topic sentence of body paragraphs should consistently include keywords from the thesis statement.
Cohesion makes the paragraph understandable at the sentence level by linking ideas effectively.
To maintain cohesion, elaborate on each key point in the topic sentence with specific minor details.
Support and elaboration can come from credible sources like books, articles, or research.
Including your own analysis and discussion in each paragraph adds your personal voice to the essay.
A paragraph should not just be a collection of citations; there should be intertextuality.
Logical bridges and cohesive devices (keywords, pronouns, transitional phrases) ensure the paragraph remains focused.
The concluding sentence synthesizes the paragraph's content, using transitional devices and presenting the author's analysis.
Transcripts
in the previous video you have learned
how to plan for your essay through
academic outlining
you are now ready to learn how to
develop and elaborate your essay
and this is like putting different
possible pieces together
to make one cohesive whole
first understanding the structure of a
paragraph
will help you write a cohesive and
coherent essay
a paragraph is comprised of topic
sentence
minor details and the concluding
sentence
the first part of a paragraph is called
topic
sentence it is a sentence that indicates
in a general way
what idea the paragraph is going to deal
with
which is why it is called topic sentence
because it presents a sub-topic that
supports the thesis statement
it is the first sentence of a paragraph
remember that the focal point
of an entire essay is the thesis
statement and in the thesis statement
there are three key points
the topic sentence of each body
paragraph presents the three key points
in the thesis statement with that
coherence is applied in the essay
coherence is the presentation of
connectedness
of the ideas in paragraph level through
the use of keywords in the thesis
statement
and for you to write a coherent essay
you have to secure the connection
between the thesis statement
and topic sentence again topic sentence
is the first sentence of each body
paragraph
of an essay
for example considering this thesis
statement therefore
reduction of carbon emission could be
done by changing non-renewable resources
driving behavior and vehicle models the
first key point which is
changing non-renewable resources should
be present
in the first sentence of the body
paragraph 1 and we can see that
it is included in topic sentence which
says
usage of renewable resources
to continue such as carbon neutral fuels
could be an acceptable source for
powering automobiles in an effort to
reduce
carbon emission in doing so the idea in
intro is coherent to the idea in the
body
paragraph one same thing with topic
sentence of body paragraph two the key
point in topic
in the thesis statement which is
changing one's striving behavior is
present in topic sentence of body
paragraph two
as well as the third key point of these
statements
which is vehicle models it's also
present
in topic sentence of body paragraph
three
in short the keywords that you use in
the thesis statement
should be consistent with the keywords
in each topic
sentence in this way you can secure the
connectedness of the essay in paragraph
level
and that is called coherence
the middle part of a paragraph is
comprised of minor details
in this part we need cohesion cohesion
is the trait that makes the paragraph
easily understandable to a reader this
time
it presents connectedness in sentence
level
sometime a paragraph or paper could be
coherent
but when you read the sentences of each
paragraph it's not cohesive anymore
so how do we avoid that once you have a
coherent topic sentence you need to
elaborate each key point with the
specific
details this specification is what we
call the minor details
to illustrate a thesis statement is
supported by topic
sentence which is also called the major
details and topic sentence is elaborated
by the minor details
furthermore details include support or
elaboration from books
articles credible websites personal
experience and empirical research
it is also highly important that your
own analysis
and discussion of the topic is included
in each paragraph
this will present your own voice in the
paragraph
remember a paragraph should not be just
a compilation of citations
but there should be intertextuality
intertextuality is a literary device
that creates an interrelationship
between
texts and generates related
understanding in separate works or
references
this is the actual placing of different
possible pieces of the essay
and all of these pieces should be
organized according to the order of
ideas set forth in the thesis statement
the entire paragraph should concern
itself with a single
focus if it begins with one focus it
should not
end with another or wonder within
different ideas
that is why we need logical bridges
which means that the same idea of topic
is carried over from
sentence to sentence we do this by the
use of cohesive devices
such as keywords pronouns transitional
devices
transitional phrases
last concluding sentence it is the
synthesis of the entire paragraph
it could be a paraphrased version of the
topic sentence
transitional device is also used such as
thus
hands therefore it does not have any
citation because it should be the own
analysis
input voice of the author of the essay
it is the last sentence of a paragraph
be informed that this is not the same as
the conclusion paragraph
through coherence and cohesion
substantial essay is achievable
happy writing
in the previous video you have learned
how to plan for your essay through
academic
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