Cohesion vs. Coherence

Cohesion vs. Coherence

Cohesion and coherence are important features of academic writing. They are one of the features tested in exams of academic English, including the IELTS test and the TOEFL test.

Cohesion

It is important for the parts of a written text to be connected together. Another word for this is cohesion. This word comes from the word cohere, which means 'to stick together'. Cohesion is therefore related to ensuring that the words and sentences you use stick together.

Good cohesion is achieved through the following four main methods, each of which is described in more detail below:

• Repeated words/ideas

• Reference words

• Transition signals

• Ellipsis

Repeated words/ideas

One way to achieve cohesion is to repeat words, or to repeat ideas using different words (synonyms). 

It is important, in academic writing, to avoid too much repetition, so using different word forms or synonyms is common. 

Example:

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. The second key feature is reference words. The third one is transition signals. The fourth is substitution. The final important aspect is ellipsis.

In the last example, the word cohesion is used several times, including as a verb (coheres). It is important, in academic writing, to avoid too much repetition, so using different word forms or synonyms is common. The word writing is also used several times, including the phrase essay or report, which is a synonym for writing. The words important features are also repeated, again using synonyms: key feature, important aspect.

Reference words

Reference words are words which are used to refer to something which is mentioned elsewhere in the text, usually in a preceding sentence. The most common type is pronouns, such as 'it' or 'this' or 'these'. 

Example:

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. The second key feature is reference words. The third one is transition signals. The fourth is substitution. The final important aspect is ellipsis.

The words it, which and these are reference words. The first two of these, it and which, both refer to 'cohesion' used in the preceding sentence. The final example, these, refers to 'important features', again used in the sentence that precedes it.

Transition signals

Transition signals, also called cohesive devices or linking words, are words or phrases which show the relationship between ideas. There are many different types, the most common of which are explained in the next section on transition signals. 

Some examples of transition signals are:

• for example - used to give examples

• in contrast - used to show a contrasting or opposite idea

• first - used to show the first item in a list

• as a result - used to show a result or effect

Ellipsis

Ellipsis means leaving out one or more words, because the meaning is clear from the context. Ellipsis is sometimes called substitution by zero, since essentially one or more words are substituted with no word taking their place.

Example:

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. The second key feature is reference words. The third one is transition signals. The fourth is substitution. The final important aspect is ellipsis.

There is one example of ellipsis: the phrase 'The fourth is', which means 'The fourth (important feature) is', so the words 'important feature' have been omitted.

Cohesion vs. Coherence

The words 'cohesion' and 'coherence' are often used together with a similar meaning, which relates to how an academic text joins together to make a unified whole. Although they are similar, they are not the same. Cohesion relates to the micro level of the text, the words and sentences and how they join together. Coherence, in contrast, relates to the organisation and connection of ideas and whether they can be understood by the reader, and as such is concerned with the macro level features of a text, such as topic sentences, thesis statement, the summary in the concluding paragraph (dealt with in the essay structure section), and other 'bigger' features including headings such as those used in reports.