Strategies For Cohesive Writing

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Jane

Cohesive writing is prose that is clear and easy to understand, with all ideas presented in an
orderly manner and tied together in a logical way. When writing is cohesive, every element is
connected, allowing ideas to flow in a sensible way. Reading it feels natural, with the entire
thing moving fluently from one item to the next.

Without cohesion, writing can feel choppy in parts, as if you’re reading a piece of text with
blanked out passages. It puts the reader in a position of having to work harder to grasp
concepts, apart from making the writing a whole lot less enjoyable to read through.

Focus On It During Editing

Your best chance at achieving cohesion happens during the revision phase. Worrying about
it while you draft can drag the whole process, extending it for unnecessarily longer. Suffice to
say, second-guessing yourself after every sentence or paragraph is far from efficient if you
want to get work done.

During writing, all you need to focus on in terms of cohesion is whether the stuff you’re
putting down makes sense to the reader you have in mind. As you write it and consider the
target reader, can you see them following your train of thought? If you feel they are, then
you’re doing fine. You can worry about the nitty-gritty of the thing later.

Cohesion and Coherence

These two are often confused with each other, especially as they relate to writing. While both
are elements of well-written prose, they are different things. A text may be cohesive but not
coherent, just as another may be coherent but not necessarily cohesive.

Coherence is a quality of writing that allows it to make sense to the reader. Cohesion, on the
other hand, concerns itself with the use of explicit techniques to indicate the relationships
among different parts of the text.
Writing Flowing Sentences

While cohesion helps smoothen the flow of writing, it’s also important to focus on
coherence, especially when you’re writing at the sentence level. Keep the following in mind
while you’re writing and coherence should not end up an issue:

● Vary your sentence lengths and structures. Too many look-alike simple
sentences will make your paragraphs sound choppy and stilted. Variations don’t
just sound better, they make reading your paragraphs easier, too.
● Correct your punctuation. Make sure you use correct punctuation throughout
your sentences, especially with the use of commas, as they’re too frequently a
culprit at obscuring the meaning you’re attempting to convey.
● Broaden your language choices. Use pronouns, synonyms, figurative speech and
polysyllabic words to add variety to your language choices. Just make sure to
take some care, though: there’s a fine line between using a wide vocabulary and
making the reader consult a dictionary every other sentence. The former is good,
the latter is bad.

Simple Transitions

These are short words and phrases that explicitly link sentences and paragraphs to each
other, indicating the relationships that exist among different ideas. They usually appear at
the beginning of the sentence, allowing the reader to establish the link with the previous idea
before going into the rest of the message.

Common examples of these types of transition relationships include:

● Addition (additionally…)
● Cause-Effect (for this reason…)
● Elaboration (furthermore…)
● Comparison (by the same token…)
● Contrast (on the contrary…)
● Time Transitions (at the same time…)
● Restatement (in other words…)

Repeating Key Words

Using key words is another effective way of tying ideas together. If the same term appears
across three sentences, for instance, it immediately implies some form of relationship
among them. This is especially helpful when you don’t want to explicitly state the
relationship, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. Be wary, however, of excessive
repetition — it can lead to awkward-sounding sentences.

The greatest value of key word repetition is that it focuses the reader towards specific
elements of your text, whether it is an action, an event or the main subject itself. It gives you
the power to control, to a degree, what they are able to derive from a statement, turning their
attention towards those elements that link your sentences and paragraphs to each other.

Repeating Sentence Structures

Using the same sentence structure with the same keywords is another powerful technique
employed to emphasize ideas. There are two primary ways people do this:

1. Repeating the same sentence structure and keyword combination in successive

sentences. Often, this is done in threes.
2. Repeating the same sentence structure and keyword combination in separate
paragraphs.

Often, this is employed as a rhetorical technique for effect, rather than cohesion. However,
the parallel sentence structures highlight the similar patterns in the sentences, helping
establishing the relationship between them at the same time.

Thematic Consistency

Cohesive text is often also consistent. That is, there’s a clear running theme throughout the
entirety of the discussion. The best way to do this is to establish the same theme at every
paragraph beginning and work towards staying on the same path until the end.

Sequence Information From Old To New

One of the best ways of ensuring cohesion is to organize the information in your writing
from old to new. That is, you consciously start every sentence and paragraph with
information that establishes context for what you’re going to write next. Doing so prevents
any confusion on the reader’s part, ensuring they have knowledge of all the background
details needed to comprehend the succeeding discussion.

This type of cohesion strategy is applicable at almost every level in any type of writing:
sentences, paragraphs, sections and chapters can all be benefited using this type of
structure. This can be especially useful when writing about complex subjects — the act of
establishing context before revealing new data makes them a lot easier to digest for the
readers, regardless of level.

How does this differ from using transitions? Unlike transitions, you don’t just use an
expression to denote relationship with the previous idea. Instead, you present it clearly. You
can be referencing something four paragraphs out or something you haven’t covered in
previous paragraphs but is needed to establish context for the new information.

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Ordering Information in the Body of the Essay

Choosing a Logical Order for Ideas - Once you have your thesis and your groups of
supporting information with topic sentence ideas, you can determine the best possible order
in which to present them in the essay. To determine the most logical shape or order, ask and
answer these questions:

● Is there a basic topic sentence idea that you should present first, before you explain
the others, because the reader needs its information as background and because the
other topic sentence ideas build upon it?
● Are there some topic sentences and groups of information that are more important
than others? Can you discern a logical pattern, either in ascending or descending
order of importance?
● Are there some topic sentences and groups of information that normally come first
in a time sequence?

Order of complexity, order of importance, and time order are three basic, logical ways of
shaping ideas to help the reading audience follow the flow of thought.
For example, consider the sample topic sentence, Adults returning to college face time,
study, emotional, and family problems. Assuming that the order of the topic sentences in the
support follows the order of ideas in the thesis, are these ideas arranged in a logical order?
There doesn't seem to be any idea that has to be explained first. Also, each of the topic
sentences that could be developed from this thesis seems equally complex. And the ideas
don't exist in any type of chronological order. So how do you determine a logical shape and
order of ideas for this essay? One way is to move from the problems that affect just one
person, the student, to the problems that affect the whole family (emotional problems, study
skills, juggling work and family, changing family roles). Another way is to move from the
problems that can be dealt with more directly to those that are more complex to deal with
(study skills, juggling work and family, changing family roles, emotional problems). The point
here is that there needs to be some rationale or logical connection for ordering the ideas in
the essay so that the essay's shape makes sense to others. And, whatever way the writer
chooses, he/she then needs to align the order of ideas in the thesis to reflect the actual
order of ideas in the support in order to complete the essay's logical shape.

Emphasis as a Means of Ordering Information in an Essay

Emphasis, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is a "special importance or
significance placed upon . . . something." You can choose to emphasize different things in
an essay by choosing where to place the essay's main ideas (the thesis and topic sentence
ideas).

You emphasize main ideas when you place them at the start of the essay or the unit of
support. If you place the thesis toward the start of the essay and the topic sentences toward
the start of each unit of support, you gear all of the support toward proving those main
ideas. Emphasizing main ideas by placing them first is called deduction, which creates a
general-to-specific structure in the essay by placing the major information first. Deduction
helps you focus on an argument and create a case, as it requires you to develop support
around a main point.

For example:

The Impatient Silent Twitchers form an interesting group of line-standers because of their
variety. The Wristwatch Checkers are the mildest sub-group of this larger group. Their
bodies remain quiet except for the one arm where that powerful necessity, the wristwatch,
sits. Maybe that the electric battery in the watch emits tiny electrical impulses to the nerves,
but whatever it is, something creates a knee-jerk reaction in the arm to make the Wristwatch
Checker's elbow defy gravity every minute and a half. Wristwatch Checkers are dangerous
only in busy lines that wind back on themselves. As long as you're far enough away from
them, though, they can make good line companions on warm, windless days.

You emphasize the method of reasoning and the particulars of the support as opposed to
the main idea when you place the main ideas at the end of the essay or the unit of support.
Main ideas still remain important when you place them at the end, but you offer them more
as logical outcomes than as initial arguments (so the emphasis has changed). Putting the
main idea at the end is called induction, which moves from specific information to general
conclusions. Induction may help you present a controversial thesis to your reading audience.
For example, if you were in favor of banning smoking in the doorways outside of buildings,
you'd probably alienate many in your audience by placing that main idea first. But if you
presented your support and lead into the main idea, your reading audience (smokers
included!) might see the logic of your case (even if they didn't agree).

For example:

Some people stand in line quietly except for one arm which they constantly move up and
down. These people check their wristwatches persistently, usually in regular short intervals
which seem to become shorter as the line wait gets longer. Their arms jerk upward
compulsively, elbows thrust out to the side, while their heads go down simultaneously. As
the spasms subside, they usually accompany the arm's return to position by tapping their
feet, exhaling loud breaths, or fidgeting in some other way. The Wristwatch Checkers are the
subtlest and mildest members of the Impatient Silent Twitchers group of line-standers; they
lend variety to a group whose movements usually are more pronounced.

You emphasize major ideas and method equally when you place main ideas in the middle of
the essay or unit of support. In this case, the main idea exists neither as a generating point
for the essay nor as a logical conclusion. Instead, it's a fulcrum which both grows out of and
generates more particular support.

For example:

Imagine a sultry day. Imagine having to stand in a slow line to cash your paycheck after
hours at an ATM. Imagine, all of a sudden, feeling a slight but steady breeze. The trees are
not affected; where is the breeze coming from? After a while you realize that you're getting
fanned by the arm motions of the Wristwatch Checkers, the mildest group of the Impatient
Silent Twitchers, an interesting group of line-standers. Their bodies remain quiet except for
one arm where that powerful necessity, the wristwatch, sits. It may be the battery's impulses
to the nerves that causes the twitch, but whatever it is, something creates that urge to make
the arm defy gravity every minute and a half. On a hot day, though, you'll be grateful for
whatever causes their compulsion to make the line move by checking the time as that slight
breeze wafts your way.

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Connectives used in and between sentences