Making Your Writing Coherent
Introduction
There are various ways of making your writing coherent.
Four ways are particularly important:
1. Overall structure
2. Paragraphing
3. Cohesion: the use of linking words and phrases.
4. The use of summary words.
In this lecture, we consider each briefly except for paragraphing.1.Overall structure
1.1 When a piece of writing is said to be coherent we mean that is makes
sences to the reader. This means that the ideas are
Accessible to the reader (pitched at the right level in terms of mutual knowledge)
Grouped into sections
The sections are presented in a logical order
The ideas are linked together is a sensible way
What you are saying is clearly signalled to the reader
1.2 When you plan your work, you decide what you are going to write about
and in what order. Here are some points which some writers find useful:
Make an outline of the structure
[What are you going to write about?]
Write the first draft, dividing the work into sections
[Do you need headings for the sections?]
Re-read your work, thinking about whether another reader would understand your ideas and make an outline of what you have written
[What have you written about]
Write an introduction, indicating what the structure of your text is
{Tell the reader what you are doing}
1.3 Here are some examples of the way writers indicate the structure of
their work: The first three examples come from a book on educational
psychology. Which part of the books do you think each example comes from?1) Readers will see that chapters 3 to 5 deal with the theme of child
development, chapters 6 to 8 with human learning, and chapters 9 to 11
with human assessment. The first two chapters are both introductions
to fundamental principles.
2) The emphasis in this chapter has been on the great majority of adolescents
who leave school at the earliest opportunity.
3) The there preceding chapters have concentrated on learning from various
points of view, trying to keep a balance among empirical evidence and
general theory. It is now time to look at conceptual analysis and practical
suggestions.2. Cohesion: using linking words and phrases
2.1 There are large number of words and phrases in English that can be
used to show the way in which ideas are related or concepts are linked.
Here are some of the most important:
Additive (adding similar ideas or examples)
furthermore
in addition
additionally
Alternative
alternatively
Comparative (comparing ideas or examples)
similarly
in the same way
by contrast
in a different way
Adversative
yet, though
however
conversely
on the other hand (presenting 2 arguments)
on contrary (saying something is wrong)
Causal
therefore
consequently /in consequence
it follows that...
arising out of this
in that case
in such an event
under the circumstances
2.2 Pronounces are very important in grammatical cohesion because they
help the reader to establish links between parts of the texts
(nouns and pronouns, for example)
Pronouns must clearly relate to the correct nouns.
(Take care if the noun and pronoun are separated by any distance)Pronounces must agree in number and person with the nouns they refer to
New sections should not begin with pronounce.
Use nouns in the first sentences of sections even if they repeat the nouns used in the heading.Other proforms (e.g. this, these, those, so do) can stand in place of
verbs and even whole clauses.Look at the use of proforms in the attached texts.
3. Summary words
Summary words are very important in academic writing.
These are words like
view, idea, suggestion, argument, position, proposal, hypothesis.
They are often used with this, these (e.g. this view; these suggestions)
and relate back to previous ideas in your text. Look at the following exampling:1) The explanation given above.....
2) The controversy outline in the first section of this essay.....
3) However, even the few facts mentioned above raise serious questions.
4) There is one question raised previously that needs further clarification.Read the passage with follows and list all the words which are used to
summarize previously stated ideas:1. The students said they wanted more tests. This demand amazed the staff,
but it was proposed that tests should be doubled and given additionally at
weekends. These measures went ahead and were watched with curiosity by the
authorities. Their interest sharpened when it was found that the students
were eating hugely more than usual. The discovery of this phenomenon
prompted people to ask whether the enormous increase in the intake of food
was due to energy loss during the continual test sessions, or could it be
that more tests simply made keener students with healthier appetites?
This speculation continued for several days as more tests produced greater
consumption, but suddenly the whole situation took an alarming turn when
the students began to attack the kitchens. The authorities answered this
crisis by doubling the number of meals and increasing daily living
allowances, but these moves in no way reduced the voracious assault on all
available foodstuffs. The failure to control matters threw everybody into
a blind frenzy, and rumours of food poisoning added to the panic.
Finally the whole unfortunate chain of events resolved itself. The students,
as though hypnotised, all fell into a deep, deep sleep. The slumber lasted
three days and nights, and during this period the jaws at last were still.
When spell was broken, the students swore to take only a few sips of water
and a little bread, and they promised faithfully that this diet would last
the whole year. The staff were quick to match their declaration of restraint
and vowed to give tests only once, or twice, in a blue moon.Text1
Morelos, named after Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, is one of the smallest
states of Mexico. It is only about two hundred kilometres wide from border
to border in any direction. But it is of great strategic importance.
Its northernmost border lies less than one hundred kilometres south of
Mexico City. It is known as the patria chia - the Little Fatherland.
In the north of the state there are the mighty mountain peaks of the Sieera
Ajusco, rising more than 3,400 metres, and dividing it from the Valley of Mexico.
Interspersed between the mountains are racing streams and small valleys.
To the west are the peaks of the Sierra Judipero. Moving south, the mountains
give way to undulating hills with rich vegetation - chimoyas, mameyes,
zalotes and bananas - a dulcet land, moist, warm, semi-tropical, not forty
kilometres from the low southern hotlands of steaming jungle, malaria
and deadly heat. Further south still, the jungle gives way to the beautiful
Valley of Morelos, with its hot sun, often followed by torrential rains
which, in turn, make the earth green and fresh.Newell P E, Zapata of Mexico, Cienfuegos Press
Text2
Conflict and Terror in Algeria
Angry Feelings from the StartEuropeans came to Algeria in 1830. They were French and they were
conquerors. For centuries Italian, Spanish and French traders in
the Mediterranean had protested that Algeria's Barbary Coast harboured
nests of pirates and ruthless seahawks. At the same time an Englishman
voiced a different view: Algiers was a great place of trade and merchandise,
with 3,000 merchant families and 2,000 shops'. There were big market
towns which distributed the mutton and cereals produced in the fertile
coastal plain between the Atlas Mountains and the sea. Much trade also
went across the Sahara southwards.
So, when the French expedition claimed to be ridding the Mediterranean
of the pirates it was only a half truth. This became even clearer in the
years after 1830 when French settlers, called 'colons', came to Algeria.
They did not want to grow crops just for a local market; they intended
developing a rich export trade in wine. The 4,000 acres under vines in
1830 rose to three-quarters of a million by 1953. Yet grain production
stayed roughly the same - to feed a population that had trebled. These
figures spelt prosperity for the colon, and poverty for the mass of
Berber and Arab peoples of Algeria.
From the start the French found warlike tribes on the Atlas and Saharan
regions a menace to the valuable vineyards. And when a great 'jihad' or
holy war was declared in 1832 by Abd al-Qadir against the French, small,
brutal campaigns broke out and continued for half a century. These drew
French armies more and more into the interior where Arab and Frenchman
treated each other with ferocity. This shedding of blood was to recur
many times in the next hundred years.From Modern Africa 1870-1970
By Baccy Williams (Longman)
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