how to make a cohesive essay

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How to write a cohesive essay

When it comes to writing, people usually emphasise the importance of good grammar and proper spelling. However, there is a third element that actually helps authors get their thoughts across to readers, that is cohesiveness in writing. 

In writing, cohesiveness is the quality that makes it easier for people to read and understand an essay’s content. A cohesive essay has all its parts (beginning, middle, and end) united, supporting each other to inform or convince the reader. 

Unfortunately, this is an element that even intermediate or advanced writers stumble on. While the writer’s thoughts are in their compositions, all too often readers find it difficult to understand what is being said because of the poor organisation of ideas. This article provides tips on how you can make your essay cohesive. 

1. Identify the thesis statement of your essay

A thesis statement states what your position is regarding the topic you are discussing. To make an essay worth reading, you will need to make sure that you have a compelling stance.

However, identifying the thesis statement is only the first step. Each element that you put in your essay should be included in a way that supports your argument, which should be the focus of your writing. If you feel that some of the thoughts you initially included do not contribute to strengthening your position, it might be better to take them out when you revise your essay to have a more powerful piece. 

2. Create an outline 

One of the common mistakes made by writers is that they tend to add a lot of details to their essay which, while interesting, may not really be relevant to the topic at hand. Another problem is jumping from one thought to another, which can confuse a reader if they are not familiar with the subject.

Preparing an outline can help you avoid these difficulties. List the ideas you have in mind for your essay, and then see if you can arrange these thoughts in a way that would make it easy for your readers to understand what you are saying. 

While discursive essays do not usually contain stories, the same principle still applies. Your writing should have an introduction, a discussion portion and a conclusion. Again, make sure that each segment supports and strengthens your thesis statement.

As a side note, a good way to write the conclusion of your essay is to mention the points that you raised in your introduction. At the same time, you should use this section to summarise main ideas and restate your position to drive the message home to your readers. 

3. Make sure everything is connected

In connection to the previous point, make sure that each section of your essay is linked to the one after it. Think of your essay as a story: it should have a beginning, middle, and end, and the way that you write your piece should logically tie these elements together in a linear manner. 

4. Proofread before submitting your essay

Make sure to review your composition prior to submission. In most cases, the first draft may be a bit disorganised because this is the first time that your thoughts have been laid out on paper. By reviewing what you have written, you will be able to see which parts need editing, and which ones can be rearranged to make your essay more easily understood by your readers. Try to look at what you wrote from the point of view of your audience. Will they be able to understand your train of thought, or do you need to reorganise some parts to make it easier for them to appreciate what you are saying? Taking another look at your essay and editing it can do wonders for how your composition flows.

Writing a cohesive essay could be a lot easier than you think – especially when you follow these steps. Don’t forget that reading complements writing: try reading essays on various topics and see if each of their parts supports their identified goal or argument.

Writing Resources: Developing Cohesion

Cohesion  is a characteristic of a successful essay  when it flows as a united whole ; meaning, there is unity and connectedness between all of the parts. Cohesion is a writing issue at a macro and micro level. At a macro-level, cohesion is the way a paper uses a thesis sentence, topic sentences, and transitions across paragraphs to help unify and focus a paper. On a micro-level, cohesion happens within the paragraph unit between sentences; when each sentence links back to the previous sentence and looks ahead to the next, there is cohesion across sentences. Cohesion is an important aspect of writing because it helps readers to follow the writer’s thinking. 

Misconceptions & Stumbling Blocks

Many writers believe that you should avoid repetition at all costs. It’s true that strong writing tends to not feel repetitive in terms of style and word choice; however, some repetition is necessary in order to build an essay and even paragraphs that build on each other and develop logically. A pro tip when you’re drafting an essay would be to build in a lot of repetition and then as you revise, go through your essay and look for ways you can better develop your ideas by paraphrasing your argument and using appropriate synonyms.

Building Cohesion

Essay focus: macro cohesion.

Locate & read your thesis sentence and the first and last sentence of each paragraph. You might even highlight them and/or use a separate piece of paper to make note of the key ideas and subjects in each (that is, making a reverse outline while you’re reading).

• How do these sentences relate?
• How can you use the language of the thesis statement again in topic sentences to reconnect to the main argument?
• Does each paragraph clearly link back to the thesis? Is it clear how each paragraph adds to, extends, or complicates the thesis?
• Repetition of key terms and ideas (especially those that are key to the argument)
• Repetition of central arguments; ideally, more than repeating your argument, it evolves and develops as it encounters new supporting or conflicting evidence.
• Appropriate synonyms. Synonyms as well as restating (paraphrasing) main ideas and arguments both helps you to explain and develop the argument and to build cohesion in your essay.

Paragraph Focus: Micro Cohesion

For one paragraph, underline the subject and verb of each sentence.

• Does the paragraph have a consistent & narrow focus?
• Will readers see the connection between the sentences?
• Imagine that the there is a title for this paragraph: what would it be and how would it relate to the underlined words?
• Repetition of the central topic and a clear understanding of how the evidence in this paragraph pushes forward or complicates that idea.
• Variations on the topic
• Avoid unclear pronouns (e.g., it, this, these, etc.). Rather than using pronouns, try to state a clear and specific subject for each sentence. This is an opportunity to develop your meaning through naming your topic in different ways.
• Synonyms for key terms and ideas that help you to say your point in slightly new ways that also push forward your ideas.

Sentence to Sentence: Micro Cohesion  

Looking at one paragraph, try to name what each sentence is doing to the previous: is it adding further explanation? Is it complicating the topic? Is it providing an example? Is it offering a counter-perspective? Sentences that build off of each other have movement that is intentional and purposeful; that is, the writer knows the purpose of each sentence and the work that each sentence accomplishes for the paragraph.

• Transition words (look up a chart) to link sentence and to more clearly name what you’re doing in each sentence (e.g., again, likewise, indeed, therefore, however, additionally, etc.) 
• Precise verbs to help emphasize what the writer is doing and saying (if you’re working with a source/text) or what you’re doing and saying.
• Again, clear and precise subjects that continue to name your focus in each sentence.

A Link to a PDF Handout of this Writing Guide

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Revising for Cohesion

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Writing a cohesive paper takes time and revision. This resource will focus primarily on topic sentences that begin each paragraph and on topics, or main points, within a paragraph. This resource will also enable students to look closely at their sentences and see how each sentence relates to another within a paragraph. This material is adapted from Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace , by Joseph Williams.

For a video guide to cutting unnecessary essay content, visit the Purdue OWL's vidcast on cutting.

• Begin sentences with short, simple words and phrases.
• These phrases should communicate information that appeared in previous sentences, or build on knowledge that you share with your reader.
• Within a paragraph, keep your topics, or main points, direct and reasonably consistent.

Tip: Create a list of words to draw from that intuitively tells the reader what to focus on. If your words progress from “investigate, remedy, resolve” or “negate, discover, re-invent” the reader should be able to follow the line of action and they will feel like your ideas cohere.

Exercise: Diagnosis, Analysis, Revision

• Underline the first few words of every sentence in a paragraph, ignoring short introductory phrases such as "In the beginning," or "For the most part."
• If you can, underline the first few words of every clause. (Remember that a clause has a subject and verb)
• Read your underlined words. Is there a consistent set of related topics?
• Will your reader see these connections among the topics?
• Imagine that the passage has a title. The words in the title should identify what should be the topics of most of the sentences.
• Decide what you will focus on in each paragraph.
• In most sentences, make your topics subjects that do the action in the sentences.
• Move your topics to the beginning of your sentences. Avoid hiding your topic behind long introductory phrases or clauses.

Sample Passage

Topics are crucial for readers because readers depend on topics to focus their attention on particular ideas toward the beginning of sentences . Topics tell readers what a whole passage is "about." If readers feel that a sequence of topics is coherent, then they will feel they are moving through a paragraph from a cumulatively coherent point of view. But if throughout the paragraph readers feel that its topics shift randomly, then they have to begin each sentence out of context, from no coherent point of view. When that happens, readers feel dislocated , disoriented, and out of focus.

Analysis of the Sample Passage:

1. Read your underlined words. Is there a consistent set of related topics?

Here are some significant words from the clauses that are underlined in the above example: topics , readers, topics, readers, they, readers, they, readers. Do these words help guide your reader along?

2. Will your reader see these connections among the topics?

Utilize repetition and patterns of progression. What this sample passage does really well is that it works with repetition. It also has a pattern of progression: in the first sentence, the phrase, “topics are crucial” is used and then the writer explains how topics are crucial in the rest of this sentence and the next. In terms of repetition, the phrase “readers feel that” is used twice. The third time it is used, there’s a variation to the pattern. This variation is direct, concise, and surprising: “Readers feel dislocated,” begins this clause.

3. Imagine that the passage has a title. The words in the title should identify what should be the topics of most of the sentences.

Sample Title: “How Topics Coherently Guide the Reader” Do the themes in the above passage match with this title?

4. Decide what you will focus on in each paragraph.

Think about the importance of your topics and what happens to the paragraph if these topics are not utilized. In the sample passage, the highlighted phrase seems out of place. Consider this revision:

Topics are crucial for readers. Topics tell readers what a whole passage is "about." Readers depend on topics to focus their attention on particular ideas toward the beginning of sentences . If readers feel that a sequence of topics is coherent, then they will feel they are moving through a paragraph from a cumulatively coherent point of view.

In this revision, the phrase “what a passage is ‘about,’” comes before “Readers depend…” This coheres better than the initial draft because the writer sets the reader up for a definition, or in-depth explanation of what the word “about”’ means.

Questions to ask yourself as you revise

On a sentence level:

1. Do your sentences "hang together"? Readers must feel that sentences in a paragraph are not just individually clear, but are unified with each other. Readers should be able to move easily from one sentence to the next, feeling that each sentence "coheres" with the one before and after it.

One way of thinking about this is as if you are giving your readers sign posts or clues they can follow throughout your passage. These will act as signals that guide the reader into your argument.

2. Does the sentence begin with information that’s familiar to the reader? Readers will be familiar with your information if it has already been touched upon in the previous sentence.

It’s important to address how readers feel about unfamiliar information. As a writer, we sometimes forget that readers have different assumptions, values and beliefs than we do. Their bodies of knowledge are not the same as ours. Thus, it’s important to clearly build your progression of thought or argument in a cohesive paper. In the sample passage, the writer clearly defines why readers depend on topics: “Topics tell the reader what a passage is ‘about.’”

3. Does the sentence end with interesting information the reader would not anticipate?

In the case of the sample passage, the last sentence has a sharp and unexpected ending. The last few words, “out of focus” are an unexpected way to end the paragraph because the entire paragraph has been about how topics are cohesive tools. Ending on this note leaves the reader feeling uneasy about leaving topics out of context, which is the aim of the sample passage.

On a paragraph level:

Will your reader be able to identify quickly the "topic" of each paragraph?

Note: it is easier to see coherence and clarity in other people's writing because by the time we reach a final draft, everything we write seems old or familiar to us. Improving on this takes practice. Try giving yourself a few days between writing and revising to get a fresh look.

Cohesion And Coherence In Essay Writing

Table of contents, introduction.

Coherent essays are identified by relevance to the central topic. They communicate a meaningful message to a specific audience and maintain pertinence to the main focus. In a coherent essay, the sentences and ideas flow smoothly and, as a result, the reader can follow the ideas developed without any issues.

To achieve coherence in an essay, writers use lexical and grammatical cohesive devices. Examples of these cohesive devices are repetition, synonymy, antonymy, meronymy, substitutions , and anaphoric or cataphoric relations between sentences. We will discuss these devices in more detail below.

This article will discuss how to write a coherent essay. We will be focusing on the five major points.

• We will start with definitions of coherence and cohesion.
• Then, we will give examples of how a text can achieve cohesion.
• We will see how a text can be cohesive but not coherent.
• The structure of a coherent essay will also be discussed.
• Finally, we will look in detail at ways to improve cohesion and write a coherent essay.

Before illustrating how to write coherent essays, let us start with the definitions of coherence and cohesion and list the ways we can achieve cohesion in a coherent text.

Definitions Cohesion and Coherence

In general, coherence and cohesion refer to how a text is structured so that the elements it is constituted of can stick together and contribute to a meaningful whole. In coherent essays, writers use grammatical and lexical cohesive techniques so that ideas can flow meaningfully and logically.

What is coherence?

Coherence refers to the quality of forming a unified consistent whole. We can describe a text as being coherent if it is semantically meaningful, that is if the ideas flow logically to produce an understandable entity.

If a text is coherent it is logically ordered and connected. It is clear, consistent, and understandable.

Coherence is related to the macro-level features of a text which enable it to have a sense as a whole.

What is cohesion?

Cohesion is commonly defined as the grammatical and lexical connections that tie a text together, contributing to its meaning (i.e. coherence.)

While coherence is related to the macro-level features of a text, cohesion is concerned with its micro-level – the words, the phrases, and the sentences and how they are connected to form a whole.

If the elements of a text are cohesive, they are united and work together or fit well together.

To summarize, coherence refers to how the ideas of the text flow logically and make a text semantically meaningful as a whole. Cohesion is what makes the elements (e.g. the words, phrases, clauses, and sentences) of a text stick together to form a whole.

How to Achieve Cohesion And Coherence In Essay Writing

There are two types of cohesion: lexical and grammatical. Writers connect sentences and ideas in their essays using both lexical and grammatical cohesive devices.

Lexical cohesion

We can achieve cohesion through lexical cohesion by using these techniques:

• Repetition.

Now let’s look at these in more detail.

Repeating words may contribute to cohesion. Repetition creates cohesive ties within the text.

• Birds are beautiful. I like birds.

You can use a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word to achieve cohesion.

• Paul saw a snake under the mattress. The serpent was probably hiding there for a long time.

Antonymy refers to the use of a word of opposite meaning. This is often used to create links between the elements of a text.

• Old movies are boring, the new ones are much better.

This refers to the use of a word that denotes a subcategory of a more general class.

• I saw a cat . The animal was very hungry and looked ill.

Relating a superordinate term (i.e. animal) to a corresponding subordinate term (i.e. cat) may create more cohesiveness between sentences and clauses.

Meronymy is another way to achieve cohesion. It refers to the use of a word that denotes part of something but which is used to refer to the whole of it for instance faces can be used to refer to people as in “I see many faces here”. In the following example, hands refer to workers.

• More workers are needed. We need more hands to finish the work.

Grammatical cohesion

Grammatical cohesion refers to the grammatical relations between text elements. This includes the use of:

• Cataphora .
• Substitutions.
• Conjunctions and transition words.

Let us illustrate the above devices with some examples.

Anaphora is when you use a word referring back to another word used earlier in a text or conversation.

• Jane was brilliant. She got the best score.

The pronoun “she” refers back to the proper noun “Jane”.

Cataphora is the opposite of anaphora. Cataphora refers to the use of a word or phrase that refers to or stands for a following word or phrase.

• Here he comes our hero. Please, welcome John .

The pronoun “he” refers back to the proper noun “John”.

Ellipsis refers to the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.

• Liz had some chocolate bars, and Nancy an ice cream.

In the above example, “had” in “Nancy an ice cream” is left because it can be understood (or presupposed) as it was already mentioned previously in the sentence.

Elliptic elements can be also understood from the context as in:

• A: Where are you going?

Substitutions

Substitutions refer to the use of a word to replace another word.

• A: Which T-shirt would you like?
• B: I would like the pink one .

Conjunctions transition words

Conjunctions and transition words are parts of speech that connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

• Examples of conjunctions: but, or, and, although, in spite of, because,
• Examples of transition words: however, similarly, likewise, specifically, consequently, for this reason, in contrast to, accordingly, in essence, chiefly, finally.

Here are some examples:

• I called Tracy and John.
• He was tired but happy.
• She likes neither chocolates nor cookies.
• You can either finish the work or ask someone to do it for you.
• He went to bed after he had done his homework.
• Although she is very rich, she isn’t happy.
• I was brought up to be responsible. Similarly , I will try to teach my kids how to take responsibility for their actions.

Cohesive but not coherent texts

Sometimes, a text may be cohesively connected, yet may still be incoherent.

Learners may wrongly think that simply linking sentences together will lead to a coherent text.

Here is an example of a text in which sentences are cohesively connected, yet the overall coherence is lacking:

The player threw the ball toward the goalkeeper. Balls are used in many sports. Most balls are spheres, but American football is an ellipsoid. Fortunately, the goalkeeper jumped to catch the ball. The crossbar in the soccer game is made of iron. The goalkeeper was standing there.

The sentences and phrases in the above text are decidedly cohesive but not coherent.

There is a use of:

• Repetition of: the ball, goalkeeper, the crossbar.
• Conjunctions and transition words: but, fortunately.

The use of the above cohesive devices does not result in a meaningful and unified whole. This is because the writer presents material that is unrelated to the topic. Why should a writer talk about what the crossbar is made of? And is talking about the form balls in sports relevant in this context? What is the central focus of the text?

A coherent essay has to be cohesively connected and logically expressive of the central topic.

How to write a coherent essay?

1. start with an outline.

An outline is the general plan of your essays. It contains the ideas you will include in each paragraph and the sequence in which these ideas will be mentioned.

It is important to have an outline before starting to write. Spending a few minutes on the outline can be rewarding. An outline will organize your ideas and the end product can be much more coherent.

Here is how you can outline your writing so that you can produce a coherent essay:

• Start with the thesis statement – the sentence that summarizes the topic of your writing.
• Brainstorm the topic for a few minutes. Write down all the ideas related to the topic.
• Sift the ideas brainstormed in the previous step to identify only the ideas worth including in your essay.
• Organize ideas in a logical order so that your essay reflects the unified content that you want to communicate.
• Each idea has to be treated in a separate paragraph.
• Think of appropriate transitions between the different ideas.
• Under each idea/paragraph, write down enough details to support your idea.

After identifying and organizing your ideas into different paragraphs, they have to fit within the conventional structure of essays.

2. Structure your essay

It is also important to structure your essay so that you the reader can identify the organization of the different parts of your essay and how each paragraph leads to the next one.

Here is a structure of an essay

3. Structure your paragraphs

Paragraphs have to be well-organized. The structure of each paragraph should have:

• A topic sentence that is usually placed at the beginning,
• Supporting details that give further explanation of the topic sentence,
• And a concluding sentence that wraps up the content of the paragraph.

The supporting sentences in each paragraph must flow smoothly and logically to support the purpose of the topic sentence. Similarly, each paragraph has to serve the thesis statement, the main topic of the essay.

4. Relevance to the main topic

No matter how long the essay is, we should make sure that we stick to the topic we want to talk about. Coherence is about making everything flow smoothly to create unity. So, sentences and ideas must be relevant to the central thesis statement.

The writer has to maintain the flow of ideas to serve the main focus of the essay.

5. Stick to the purpose of the type of essay you’re-writing

Essays must be clear and serve a purpose and direction. This means that the writer’s thoughts must not go astray in developing the purpose of the essay.

Essays are of different types and have different purposes. Accordingly, students have to stick to the main purpose of each genre of writing.

• An expository essay aims to inform, describe, or explain a topic, using essential facts to teach the reader about a topic.
• A descriptive essay intends to transmit a detailed description of a person, event, experience, or object. The aim is to make the reader perceive what is being described.
• A narrative essay attempts to tell a story that has a purpose. Writers use storytelling techniques to communicate an experience or an event.
• In argumentative essays, writers present an objective analysis of the different arguments about a topic and provide an opinion or a conclusion of positive or negative implications. The aim is to persuade the reader of your point.

6. Use cohesive devices and signposting phrases

Sentences should be connected using appropriate cohesive devices as discussed above:

Cohesive devices such as conjunctions and transition words are essential in providing clarity to your essay. But we can add another layer of clarity to guide the reader throughout the essay by using signpost signals.

What is signposting in writing?

Signposting refers to the use of phrases or words that guide readers to understand the direction of your essay. An essay should take the reader on a journey throughout the argumentation or discussion. In that journey, the paragraphs are milestones. Using signpost signals assists the reader in identifying where you want to guide them. Signposts serve to predict what will happen, remind readers of where they are at important stages along the process, and show the direction of your essay.

Essay signposting phrases

The following are some phrases you can use to signpost your writing:

It should be noted though that using cohesive devices or signposting language may not automatically lead to a coherent text. Some texts can be highly cohesive but remain incoherent. Appropriate cohesion and signposting are essential to coherence but they are not enough. To be coherent, an essay has to follow, in addition to using appropriate cohesive devices, all the tips presented in this article.

7. Draft, revise, and edit

After preparing the ground for the essay, students produce their first draft. This is the first version of the essay. Other subsequent steps are required.

The next step is to revise the first draft to rearrange, add, or remove paragraphs, ideas, sentences, or words.

The questions that must be addressed are the following:

• Is the essay clear? Is it meaningful? Does it serve the thesis statement (the main topic)?
• Are there sufficient details to convey ideas?
• Are there any off-topic ideas that you have to do without?
• Have you included too much information? Does your writing stray off-topic?
• Do the ideas flow in a logical order?
• Have you used appropriate cohesive devices and transition words when needed?

Once the revision is done, it is high time for the editing stage. Editing involves proofreading and correcting mistakes in grammar and mechanics. Pay attention to:

• Verb tense.
• Subject-verb agreement.
• Sentence structure. Have you included a subject a verb and an object (if the verb is transitive.)
• Punctuation.
• Capitalization.

Coherent essays are identified by relevance to the thesis statement. The ideas and sentences of coherent essays flow smoothly. One can follow the ideas discussed without any problems. Lexical and grammatical cohesive devices are used to achieve coherence. However, these devices are not sufficient. To maintain relevance to the main focus of the text, there is a need for a whole process of collecting ideas, outlining, reviewing, and editing to create a coherent whole.

More writing lessons are here .

Related Pages:

• Figures of speech
• Articles about writing

Table of Contents

Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, coherence – how to achieve coherence in writing.

• © 2023 by Joseph M. Moxley - University of South Florida

Coherence refers to a style of writing where ideas, themes, and language connect logically, consistently, and clearly to guide the reader's understanding. By mastering coherence , alongside flow , inclusiveness , simplicity,  and unity , you'll be well-equipped to craft professional or academic pieces that engage and inform effectively. Acquire the skills to instill coherence in your work and discern it in the writings of others.

What is Coherence?

Coherence in writing refers to the logical connections and consistency that hold a text together, making it understandable and meaningful to the reader. Writers create coherence in three ways:

• logical consistency
• conceptual consistency
• linguistic consistency.

What is Logical Consistency?

• For instance, if they argue, “If it rains, the ground gets wet,” and later state, “It’s raining but the ground isn’t wet,” without additional explanation, this represents a logical inconsistency.

What is Conceptual Consistency?

• For example, if you are writing an essay arguing that regular exercise has multiple benefits for mental health, each paragraph should introduce and discuss a different benefit of exercise, all contributing to your main argument. Including a paragraph discussing the nutritional value of various foods, while interesting, would break the conceptual consistency, as it doesn’t directly relate to the benefits of exercise for mental health.

What is Linguistic Consistency?

• For example, if a writer jumps erratically between different tenses or switches point of view without clear demarcation, the reader might find it hard to follow the narrative, leading to a lack of linguistic coherence.

Related Concepts: Flow ; Given to New Contract ; Grammar ; Organization ; Organizational Structures ; Organizational Patterns ; Sentence Errors

Why Does Coherence Matter?

Coherence is crucial in writing as it ensures that the text is understandable and that the ideas flow logically from one to the next. When writing is coherent, readers can easily follow the progression of ideas, making the content more engaging and easier to comprehend. Coherence connects the dots for the reader, linking concepts, arguments, and details in a clear, logical manner.

Without coherence, even the most interesting or groundbreaking ideas can become muddled and lose their impact. A coherent piece of writing keeps the reader’s attention, demonstrates the writer’s control over their subject matter, and can effectively persuade, inform, or entertain. Thus, coherence contributes significantly to the effectiveness of writing in achieving its intended purpose.

How Do Writers Create Coherence in Writing?

• Your thesis statement serves as the guiding star of your paper. It sets the direction and focus, ensuring all subsequent points relate back to this central idea.
• Acknowledge and address potential counterarguments to strengthen your position and add depth to your writing.
• Use the genres and organizational patterns appropriate for your rhetorical situation . A deductive structure (general to specific) is often effective, guiding the reader logically through your argument. Yet different disciplines may privilege more inductive approaches , such as law and philosophy.
• When following a given-to-new order, writers move from what the reader already knows to new information. In formal or persuasive contexts, writers are careful to vet new information for the reader following information literacy laws and conventions .
• Strategic repetition of crucial terms and your thesis helps your readers follow your main ideas and evidence for claims 
• While repetition is useful, varying language with synonyms can prevent redundancy and keep the reader engaged.
• Parallelism in sentences can provide rhythm and clarity, making complex ideas easier to follow.
• Consistent use of pronouns avoids confusion and helps in maintaining a clear line of thought.
• Arrange your ideas in a sequence that naturally builds from one point to the next, ensuring each paragraph flows smoothly into the next .
• Signposting , or using phrases that indicate what’s coming next or what just happened, can help orient the reader within your argument.
• Don’t bother repeating your argument in your conclusion. Prioritize conciseness. Yet end with a call to action or appeal to kairos and ethos .

Recommended Resources

• Organization
• Organizational Patterns

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

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12.4: Referring Back to Make the Connection (Cohesion)

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In the popular handbook They Say I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing , Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein suggest that as readers move from one idea to the next, they need to know not just what is new, but how it connects to what came before. Graff and Birkenstein visualize this as two hands, one pointing back in the text and one pointing forward. We remind the reader of the old and put it into relationship with the new. But how do we reference ideas we’ve already covered without repeating ad nauseum?

Repetition sounds like something boring we are supposed to avoid, but is actually essential to cohesion. Repeating a short key phrase can link two sentences or paragraphs by showing what topic they have in common.  If we find we are using a particular phrase too much, we can vary the wording without changing the concept. As an example, imagine we want to prove the following thesis:

Economic inequality in America will only increase unless the government takes the excess possessions of the ultra-rich.

We can be pretty sure we’ll need to repeat the key phrase “economic inequality” in ensuing paragraphs or substitute variations like “inequality,” “economic stratification” or “the disparity between rich and poor,” to remind readers of our central idea.  That will allow us to suggest the causes of inequality, define the extent of inequality, and make predictions about future inequality without seeming like we are jumping from one random point to another.

If we think the reader may not remember what we are referring to, or if its complexity makes it worth summing up, we might need to briefly restate an idea . We can paraphrase and condense a point made in a previous paragraph into just a few words.  Often looking at a previous topic sentence can help us focus on the key idea and describe the heart of it.

Pointing words

In order to remind the reader that we have already discussed an idea, we can use what Graff and Birkenstein call pointing words  like “this” or “that.” These combine with the repeated phrase or concept to work like an arrow pointing back to a section of a previous paragraph.  For example, we might use the phrase “this growing inequity” or “that very economic inequality.”  The words "this" and "that" reassure readers they can go back and look up the earlier idea if needed.  

Abstract nouns

To make the reference to the prior idea clear, we can couple "this” or “that" with an abstract noun, or a word that represents the kind of idea we are talking about. You may also see these referred to as anaphoric nouns or shell nouns.

Below are a few common abstract nouns that can refer back to an established idea.  There are many others. As you'll notice, the first few refer to elements of an argument.

• reason / evidence
• findings / conclusion
• cause / factor
• effect / result / consequence
• idea / concept
• subject / issue / topic
• problem / challenge / difficulty
• feature / characteristic / aspect 
• method / technique / strategy / approach / way / manner
• tendency / trend / pattern

Examples of these connection techniques

Here is an example template that combines repetition, a pointing word, "this," and an abstract noun, "idea":

As we have seen, _____________.  This idea has implications for _____________.

Let's look at a more extended example. Say that we want to write about inequality in the early 21st century.  The topic stays the same, and the time period changes.  First we give some history about the late 1800s.  Then we describe how inequality changed over time, and we want to start a paragraph about the Occupy Wall Street movement that started in 2011.   What is the connection between an old idea and a new idea?  We might decide that Occupy Wall Street was a direct result of inequality and start the paragraph thus:

The increased inequality that became obvious after the 2007 financial crisis eventually led to a backlash.  In September 2011, the Occupy Wall Street protest trumpeted the cause of the “99%” of Americans who were left out while the top 1% enjoyed most of the profits of American capitalism.

The new paragraph thus points back to the cause and ahead to the effect, signaling this causal relationship with the word “led.” Note that the phrase “increased inequality” refers to a core topic of the overall argument, and the phrase “that became obvious after the 2007 financial crisis” reminds us of the concept developed in the previous paragraph.

Practice Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Choose one of the sample annotated essays contained in this textbook.  Go through it and circle any repetition, pointing words, or abstract nouns that refer back to an idea. Draw an arrow from each referring word back to the earlier part of the essay it refers to. How do these words help make the essay more cohesive and easier to follow for you as a reader? Discuss with classmates or write a few sentences of reflection.

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How to write cohesively and improve the flow of your writing

Have you ever written website copy, a blog post, or a report and felt like your sentences just didn’t hang well together? Maybe you had all of the right words and ideas on the page but your sentences seemed more like a laundry list of statements than a cohesive description, explanation, or narrative.

Well, you’re in luck – today we’re going to show you a simple strategy that you can use to make your writing cohesive and improve the flow of your paragraphs. This trick will also make your content and reports easier for others to read (which is one of the best things you can do when you write). And when your paragraphs feel tight, cohesive, and logical, your readers get the feeling that you really know what you’re talking about (which is what you want, isn’t it?).

What do cohesive paragraphs look like?

To start off, take a look at this paragraph and keep track of any thoughts you have while reading it:

Paragraph A

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing are called antioxidants. People can reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, by eating foods rich in antioxidants, which limit oxidation.

What did you think of this paragraph? Was it easy to read? Was it clear how the sentences are related to one another?

Now, keep these thoughts in your head and take a look at this paragraph. (We know – we’re asking for a lot from your memory right now, but bear with us.)

Paragraph B

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing. Because they limit oxidation, foods rich in antioxidants can help people reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.

What did you think of this paragraph?

If you have even a basic understanding of science or nutrition, you may have found that Paragraph A wasn’t too hard to read. After all, we’re constantly bombarded with information about healthy eating and nutrition these days, so words like “antioxidants” aren’t the most foreign terms anymore.

But did your thoughts about Paragraph A change once you read Paragraph B? If they did, it may have been because Paragraph B was easier to read and seemed to flow better. Even if you picked up on this, though, you might not know why Paragraph B has better flow and seems to be the stronger paragraph all around.

What disrupts cohesion and flow in a paragraph?

So what is it that makes Paragraph B sound better? The beginning of each sentence picks up on the same topic that the previous sentence left off on.

What do we mean by this? Let’s take a look at Paragraph A again. In particular, let’s take a look at the words at the end of the first sentence and the beginning of the second sentence.

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants . Molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing are called antioxidants. People can reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, by eating foods rich in antioxidants, which limit oxidation.

As you can see, the word at the end of the first sentence is “antioxidants” whereas the word at the beginning of the next sentence is “molecules.” At least at first, these words don’t seem to refer to the same thing. When you get close to the end of the second sentence, you realize that in this case, “molecules” actually does refer to “antioxidants,” but this isn’t clear until you’re well into the second sentence.

If you’re the one who wrote this paragraph, you know that “antioxidants” and “molecules” refer to the same thing. But guess what – your readers can’t read your mind. At least we hope they can’t!

Because your readers can’t read your mind, there’s a good chance that they’ll start reading the second sentence and not understand how you switched from talking about “antioxidants” to talking about “molecules.” In fact, you might have had this exact experience while reading the paragraphs.

Now let’s look at the end of the second sentence and the beginning of the third one.

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants. Molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing are called antioxidants . People can reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, by eating foods rich in antioxidants, which limit oxidation.

Just like what we saw with the first and second sentences, the words are different. The second sentence ends with the word “antioxidants” whereas the third one begins with “people.” In this case, it’s clear that these words don’t refer to the same thing.

Because the third sentence picks up on a different topic than the second sentence left off on, it’s easy for readers to get confused. Why? Because it’s not clear why the writer seems to have switched topics between the sentences.

As you may have experienced when reading these paragraphs, when it feels like sentences in a paragraph are jumping from one thought to another, the paragraph just doesn’t seem to flow well. It can also make it more difficult to understand what the writer is trying to get at, which can make you question whether this person actually knows what he or she is talking about.

How to make paragraphs cohesive and flow better

Whereas the sentences in Paragraph A at least initially seem to jump from one topic to another, this isn’t an issue in Paragraph B. Let’s take a look at Paragraph B again to understand why. And as we did in Paragraph A, let’s pay attention to the beginning and end of the sentences.

Scientists studying the nutritional value of food have raised new questions about the types of molecules found in blueberries, including antioxidants . Antioxidants are molecules that stop other molecules in the body from oxidizing . Because they limit oxidation , foods rich in antioxidants can help people reduce their risk of developing many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease.

As you can see, the first sentence ends with the same word that the second sentence starts with (i.e., “antioxidants”). This makes it really easy for readers to see how the two sentences are related.

And if you take a look at the end of the second sentence and the beginning of the third one, you’ll see a similar pattern. In this case, the word that comes at the end of the second sentence (i.e., “oxidizing”) isn’t the very first word of the third sentence, but “oxidation” is part of the initial set of words in this third sentence. Because the third sentence picks up on the same thought that the second sentence left off on, the second and third sentences feel like they hang together well.

So what can you learn from these examples? If you feel like a paragraph in your blog post or report just doesn’t flow well, try structuring your sentences so that each sentence picks up on the same topic that the previous sentence ended on.

For example, take a paragraph that looks like this:

If you’re thinking about using social media as a lead generation tool for your ecommerce business, you’ve got to check out Twitter . People post bite-size updates about what they’re doing, what they’ve read, and what’s on their mind on Twitter . You can figure out how to tailor your messaging to prospects based on this information about what’s important to your prospects right now.

And turn it into something that looks like this:

If you’re thinking about using social media as a lead generation tool for your ecommerce business, you’ve got to check out Twitter . On Twitter , people post bite-size updates about what they’re doing, what they’ve read, and what’s on their mind . This information about what’s important to your prospects right now can help you tailor your messaging to them.

In this set of examples, we were able to improve the flow of the paragraphs by restructuring the second and third sentences so that they picked up on the same topics that the previous sentences left off on. Notice how we didn’t need to change the content or wording of the paragraph to make it more cohesive or to make it flow better; most of the words in the two paragraphs are the same.

When you structure your sentences so that each sentence starts on the same topic that the last sentence left off on, it’s easy for readers to see that there’s a logical thought process behind your points. After all, when readers can understand how your sentences are related, it’s easy for them to see how your ideas are related and make logical sense. And when you come across as logical to your readers (and possible future customers!), it helps them see you as a credible expert on the topic you’re writing on.

If you feel that a paragraph in your web copy, blog post, or report is “all over the place,” keep calm and edit on. Take a look at the end of each sentence and the beginning of the next one, and try to get them to converge on the same topic.

Of course, this isn’t the only way to make a paragraph cohesive. Even if you don’t end up using this technique every time you right, you won’t necessarily end up with paragraphs that aren’t cohesive and have bad flow. However, if you’re struggling to write a tight paragraph (or if you want to be extra sure that your writing sounds polished), you really don’t have much to lose by giving this trick a try. After all, when you use it, you can end up with paragraphs that are cohesive, have good flow, and are easy to read. You can’t really argue with that, and we’re guessing your readers won’t either. —————————————————————————————————————————————– Craving other tips on how to write clear content and reports? Download our free eguide “How to Write Clearly.” —————————————————————————————————————————————– Need to make a good impression with your brand content, funding proposal, or admissions essay? We can help. Get an instant quote here .

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Cohesion concerns the flow of sentences and paragraphs from one to another. It involves the tying together of old information and new. When we write academic essays, particularly in the humanities, we work hard to foster cohesion structurally, which enhances a reader's understanding of our ideas.

Essay organization

The first paragraph should include a thesis statement, which announces the main idea or argument of the paper.The rest of the sentences should lead up to or anticipate the thesis, either directly or indirectly.

The body paragraphs should support the thesis statement and should be arranged in a clear hierarchy.

Readers should be able to understand how each paragraph relates to what has come before it. This can be accomplished by the use of transition sentences.

Repetition helps to enhance a reader's understanding of what the author has written. Pointers are used as a tool in sentences to use repetition for better understanding.

Pointers are words, phrases, or ideas that appear in a sentence, and are repeated in the next.

Example : Epilepsy is a brain or neurological disorder where excess electrical energy causes seizures. Seizures result when the brain's nerve cells, or neurons, produce an excessive or abnormal amount of electrical activity. Depending on this activity …

Example : Depending on this activity, three results may occur. First, the seizure may start and stop in one location. Next, it may spread a bit and stop. Finally, it may go through the body's nervous system before stopping.

To prevent repetitions from becoming dull, an author may use:

• Variations of the word (golf, golfer, golfing)
• Pronouns (doctors…they)
• Synonyms (jump, hop, bounce)

Transitions

Transitional words and phrases, also known as “tags,” are used to hold a paper together.They can be simple conjunctions, like and and but, or they can be more complex. Here is a chart of transitional devices accompanied by a simplified definition of their function:

• Creating cohesion

There are many ways to create cohesion – a connecting thread – in a text. In an academic paper, it is important that the basic structure is right, that the various parts are in the right place and that there is a logical connection between the introduction, aim, method and results. However, structure and cohesion exist at many different levels in a text. An academic paper is divided up into chapters, which in turn can be divided up by using subheadings. Each section is divided up into paragraphs and within each paragraph there are sentences that are linked together to create a totality.

In this section, we give you tips on how to create a cohesive text. General information on the various parts of an academic paper can be found here .

Cohesive ties

Cohesive ties are a way of describing coherence in a text, quite simply how you connect the text together. The most common way is to use some type of connective marker (or connective signal). Connective markers are words or phrases that in some way signal that different parts of your text are linked. This type of cohesive tie is usually referred to as a conjunctive tie. The simplest form of conjunctive tie is to connect two sentences using and in order to show that elements belong together. Although conjunctive ties are fundamentally quite simple, there is scope for almost infinite variation. Below are some examples of conjunctive ties.

Words that signal addition:

(and, also, in addition, as well as, etc.)

Written texts are central in modern society, and many everyday activities are impossible without the use of written text.

There is also good reason to take a look at the country’s teacher training system and emphasise the importance of research links in the new teacher training programmes.

Words that signal cause and effect (causal link):

(since, thus, consequently, accordingly, etc.)

For new students, skills in academic writing are likely to have considerable value, since academic written language is directly linked to successful studies.

Words that signal contrast or comparison:

(however, but, nevertheless, instead, etc.)

A text is never completely impersonal, as it is written by people, for people. However, the degree of acceptable personal presence varies within different university subjects’ academic texts.

On the one hand, it is reasonable to require some form of academic written language skills from the students […]. On the other hand, perhaps increased human diversity must necessitate a greater acceptance of human and language variation.

Words that develop or specify:

(for example, that is, including, particularly, etc.)

Our knowledge depends on physical tools that have been developed in our culture, e.g. artefacts such as pens and paper, and intellectual tools such as the language of mathematics.

In addition to conjunctive ties, you can use thematic ties . This means that you transfer known information from the end of one sentence to the start of the next. This is also called theme and rheme .

Knowledge about how and why one writes academic texts is embedded in an academic community of practice , a community in which students can be said to be peripheral participants. A community of practice is characterised by…

A similar way to connect text together is using referential ties . This can be done by repeating a keyword (or its synonyms) to remind the reader what the section of text is about, and to move the discussion forward.

Examples of referential ties

How students within different university subjects learn a subject-specific genre or specific terminology is also examined by Blåsjö (2004). She shows in her thesis the language tools that are developed in the university subjects, history and economics, and how various knowledge-building environments with differing social contexts use language in diverse ways.

More on cohesion

There are a few other things to consider for creating logic and cohesion in the texts you write. In various types of enumeration, it is important that you are consistent and do not deviate from the form.

Certain constructions, so-called correlative conjunctions, have a predetermined form that is always followed. For example:

the …, the … neither …, nor … not only …, but also … both … and …

Paragraph division

Dividing up a text into paragraphs is perhaps the most important way of creating order in a piece of writing. A text with no paragraph divisions is compact and difficult to read. It is not possible to see which information is important and how things connect together. A text with well-chosen paragraph divisions is also more pleasant to look at, regardless of whether you use an indentation or an empty line to mark a new paragraph.

Paragraph division concerns the sorting of the text’s content. If one sentence can be said to correspond to a single thought, a paragraph can be said to correspond to a line of thought. The main thought is usually expressed in a topic sentence and the rest of the paragraph develops and explains the main thought. When a new main thought is introduced, this should be in a new paragraph.

Paragraph structure

Our knowledge depends on physical tools that have been developed in our culture , e.g. artefacts such as pens and paper, and by intellectual tools such as the language of mathematics. This can be extended to issues of power and authority : the right cultural tools can provide power through knowledge on the right way to talk and write, the right genre norms and the right reference frameworks according to the discourse norms in question. Not giving an individual access to a tool is also the wielding of power , as is forcing a person to use a tool that they do not want or consider useful.

Comments: The first sentence (topic sentence) states the paragraph’s theme, which is then developed in the rest of the paragraph. The colour coding shows different types of cohesive tie in the text.

Remember to link your paragraphs to each other in some way. Each paragraph should, in some respect, link up with something that was addressed in the preceding paragraph. This could be starting with the same main thought, but approaching it from another aspect. It could also be the further development of new information that was brought up in the previous paragraph, a form of theme and rheme , but at paragraph level.

Connecting paragraphs

Metatext is closely related to cohesive ties and can be described as “text about the text”. In metatexts the writer tells the reader how the text is to be read and understood. The most common form of metatext are short descriptions of what a chapter or section will be about:

Metatext can also be written in the form of a number of questions that your text intends to answer:

A good collection of sample metatexts can be found at the Academic Phrasebank .

Another way of telling the reader what the text contains, and how it is structured, is to use headings and subheadings. Placing headings in a text is something that perhaps happens naturally. If you write an academic paper, you are probably expected to include an introduction, a review of methodology, an account of the results and some form of analysis or discussion. The headings indicate where the academic paper’s different parts begin and, to a certain extent, what they contain.

Headings can also be used to sort and structure content at lower levels. A background section can perhaps contain definitions of terms, the historical background, and previous research. In this case, subheadings can help to separate the various sections. In addition, an extensive results section can benefit from being divided up thematically, using descriptive subheadings.

2.3 Academic writing language skills in practice

2.3.1 Critical-analytical skills  

2.3.2 Academic text conventions

2.3.3 Style in academic text s

A short quiz on creating cohesion

Welcome to your Quiz on Academic language

• Welcome to Writingguide
• Glossary Academic Writing
• The writing process
• The structure of the academic text
• Academic language
• Paraphrasing and more
• Writing references
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic publishing
• Publish your thesis
• Search for theses
• For teachers

• I nfographics
• Show AWL words
• Subscribe to newsletter
• What is academic writing?
• Academic Style
• What is the writing process?
• Understanding the title
• Brainstorming
• Researching
• First draft
• Proofreading
• Report writing
• Compare & contrast
• Cause & effect
• Problem-solution
• Classification
• Essay structure
• Introduction
• Literature review
• Book review
• Research proposal
• Thesis/dissertation

What is cohesion?

• Cohesion vs coherence

Transition signals

• What are references?
• In-text citations
• Reference sections
• Reporting verbs
• Band descriptors

Show AWL words on this page.

Levels 1-5:     grey  Levels 6-10:   orange 

Show sorted lists of these words.

Any words you don't know? Look them up in the website's built-in dictionary .

Choose a dictionary .  Wordnet  OPTED  both

Cohesion How to make texts stick together

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 . This page gives information on what cohesion is and how to achieve good cohesion. It also explains the difference between cohesion and coherence , and how to achieve good coherence. There is also an example essay to highlight the main features of cohesion mentioned in this section, as well as some exercises to help you practise.

For another look at the same content, check out YouTube or Youku , or the infographic .

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 verb 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 five main methods, each of which is described in more detail below:

• repeated words/ideas
• reference words
• transition signals
• substitution

Two other ways in which cohesion is achieved in a text, which are covered less frequently in academic English courses, are shell nouns and thematic development . These are also considered below.

Repeated words/ideas

Check out the cohesion infographic »

One way to achieve cohesion is to repeat words, or to repeat ideas using different words (synonyms). Study the following example. Repeated words (or synonyms) are shown in bold.

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 this 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'. Study the previous example again. This time, the reference words are shown in bold.

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, 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

Study the previous example again. This time, the transition signals are shown in bold. Here the transition signals simply give a list, relating to the five important features: first , second , third , fourth , and final .

Substitution

Substitution means using one or more words to replace (substitute) for one or more words used earlier in the text. Grammatically, it is similar to reference words, the main difference being that substitution is usually limited to the clause which follows the word(s) being substituted, whereas reference words can refer to something far back in the text. The most common words used for substitution are one , so , and auxiliary verbs such as do, have and be . The following is an example.

• Drinking alcohol before driving is illegal in many countries, since doing so can seriously impair one's ability to drive safely.

In this sentence, the phrase 'doing so' substitutes for the phrase 'drinking alcohol before driving' which appears at the beginning of the sentence.

Below is the example used throughout this section. There is just one example of substitution: the word one , which substitutes for the phrase 'important features'.

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.

Below is the example passage again. 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.

Shell nouns

Shell nouns are abstract nouns which summarise the meaning of preceding or succeeding information. This summarising helps to generate cohesion. Shell nouns may also be called carrier nouns , signalling nouns , or anaphoric nouns . Examples are: approach, aspect, category, challenge, change, characteristics, class, difficulty, effect, event, fact, factor, feature, form, issue, manner, method, problem, process, purpose, reason, result, stage, subject, system, task, tendency, trend, and type . They are often used with pronouns 'this', 'these', 'that' or 'those', or with the definite article 'the'. For example:

• Virus transmission can be reduced via frequent washing of hands, use of face masks, and isolation of infected individuals. These methods , however, are not completely effective and transmission may still occur, especially among health workers who have close contact with infected individuals.
• An increasing number of overseas students are attending university in the UK. This trend has led to increased support networks for overseas students.

In the example passage used throughout this section, the word features serves as a shell noun, summarising the information later in the passage.

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.

Thematic development

Cohesion can also be achieved by thematic development. The term theme refers to the first element of a sentence or clause. The development of the theme in the rest of the sentence is called the rheme . It is common for the rheme of one sentence to form the theme of the next sentence; this type of organisation is often referred to as given-to-new structure, and helps to make writing cohere.

Consider the following short passage, which is an extension of the first example above.

• Virus transmission can be reduced via frequent washing of hands, use of face masks, and isolation of infected individuals. These methods, however, are not completely effective and transmission may still occur, especially among health workers who have close contact with infected individuals. It is important for such health workers to pay particular attention to transmission methods and undergo regular screening.

Here we have the following pattern:

• Virus transmission [ theme ]
• can be reduced via frequent washing of hands, use of face masks, and isolation of infected individuals [ rheme ]
• These methods [ theme = rheme of preceding sentence ]
• are not completely effective and transmission may still occur, especially among health workers who have close contact with infected individuals [ rheme ]
• health workers [ theme, contained in rheme of preceding sentence ]
• [need to] to pay particular attention to transmission methods and undergo regular screening [ rheme ]

Cohesion vs. coherence

The words 'cohesion' and 'coherence' are often used together with a similar meaning, which relates to how a 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, i.e. 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 .

Coherence can be improved by using an outline before writing (or a reverse outline , which is an outline written after the writing is finished), to check that the ideas are logical and well organised. Asking a peer to check the writing to see if it makes sense, i.e. peer feedback , is another way to help improve coherence in your writing.

Example essay

Below is an example essay. It is the one used in the persuasion essay section. Click on the different areas (in the shaded boxes to the right) to highlight the different cohesive aspects in this essay, i.e. repeated words/ideas, reference words, transition signals, substitution and ellipsis.

Title: Consider whether human activity has made the world a better place.

History shows that human beings have come a long way from where they started. They have developed new technologies which means that everybody can enjoy luxuries they never previously imagined. However , the technologies that are temporarily making this world a better place to live could well prove to be an ultimate disaster due to , among other things, the creation of nuclear weapons , increasing pollution , and loss of animal species . The biggest threat to the earth caused by modern human activity comes from the creation of nuclear weapons . Although it cannot be denied that countries have to defend themselves, the kind of weapons that some of them currently possess are far in excess of what is needed for defence . If these [nuclear] weapons were used, they could lead to the destruction of the entire planet . Another harm caused by human activity to this earth is pollution . People have become reliant on modern technology, which can have adverse effects on the environment . For example , reliance on cars causes air and noise pollution . Even seemingly innocent devices, such as computers and mobile phones, use electricity, most of which is produced from coal-burning power stations, which further adds to environmental pollution . If we do not curb our direct and indirect use of fossil fuels, the harm to the environment may be catastrophic. Animals are an important feature of this earth and the past decades have witnessed the extinction of a considerable number of animal species . This is the consequence of human encroachment on wildlife habitats, for example deforestation to expand cities. Some may argue that such loss of [animal]   species is natural and has occurred throughout earth's history. However , the current rate of [animal]   species loss far exceeds normal levels   [of animal species loss] , and is threatening to become a mass extinction event. In summary , there is no doubt that current human activities such as the creation of nuclear weapons , pollution , and destruction of wildlife , are harmful to the earth . It is important for us to see not only the short-term effects of our actions, but their long-term ones as well. Otherwise , human activities will be just another step towards destruction .

Aktas, R.N. and Cortes, V. (2008), 'Shell nouns as cohesive devices in published and ESL student writing', Journal of English for Academic Purposes , 7 (2008) 3-14.

Alexander, O., Argent, S. and Spencer, J. (2008) EAP Essentials: A teacher's guide to principles and practice . Reading: Garnet Publishing Ltd.

Gray, B. (2010) 'On the use of demonstrative pronouns and determiners as cohesive devices: A focus on sentence-initial this/these in academic prose', Journal of English for Academic Purposes , 9 (2010) 167-183.

Halliday, M. A. K., and Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English . London: Longman.

Hinkel, E. (2004). Teaching Academic ESL Writing: Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and Grammar . Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc Publishers.

Hyland, K. (2006) English for Academic Purposes: An advanced resource book . Abingdon: Routledge.

Thornbury, S. (2005) Beyond the Sentence: Introducing discourse analysis . Oxford: Macmillan Education.

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Below is a checklist for essay cohesion and coherence. Use it to check your own writing, or get a peer (another student) to help you.

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• Transitions

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• Paraphrasing

Exercises & Activities Some ways to practise this area of EAP

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Author: Sheldon Smith    ‖    Last modified: 03 February 2022.

Sheldon Smith is the founder and editor of EAPFoundation.com. He has been teaching English for Academic Purposes since 2004. Find out more about him in the about section and connect with him on Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn .

Compare & contrast essays examine the similarities of two or more objects, and the differences.

Cause & effect essays consider the reasons (or causes) for something, then discuss the results (or effects).

Discussion essays require you to examine both sides of a situation and to conclude by saying which side you favour.

Problem-solution essays are a sub-type of SPSE essays (Situation, Problem, Solution, Evaluation).

Transition signals are useful in achieving good cohesion and coherence in your writing.

Reporting verbs are used to link your in-text citations to the information cited.

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Flow and Cohesion

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Our Writing Center gets a lot of students who are concerned about the  flow  of their writing, but this can mean a lot of different things. When we talk about "flow" we mean  cohesion  or how ideas and relationships are communicated to readers. Flow can involve the  big-picture  (how parts of the essay fit together and the way the sequence of these parts affect how readers understand it) and the  sentence-level  (how the structure of a sentence affects the ways meanings and relationships come across to readers). This page has an overview of ways to think about revising the  flow  of an essay on both of these levels.

Big-Picture Revision Strategies

Reading out-loud.

Oftentimes, you can identify places that need some extra attention sharing your writing with a friend, or reading it out loud to yourself. For example, if it's hard to actually say a sentence at a normal conversational pace, this might indicate that there's something you can change about the structure that will make it easier to say (and probably, easier to understand). A few more tips:

• When you read out-loud, make sure to  slow down . If you are talking too fast, you might fill-in gaps or otherwise not notice things you want to change. You also want to give yourself time to process what you're saying  as you say it.
• If there's nobody around, there are also many computer programs that can convert text to speech and read to you, including  Microsoft Word .
• Take notes while you read. While you might want to fix things as you read, if you're worried about flow, it's also good to read your essay all the way through so that you can hear how parts fit together. If you don't want to interrupt your reading, you can take notes by doing things like putting a checkmark in the margins, using a highlighter, or making a list on a separate sheet of paper.

Structure and Sequence

Sometimes issues of flow and cohesion might actually be structural. It's good to reflect on the structure of an essay, the order of the different parts, and how they all fit together. If you want to revise the structure of your essay, consider trying one of the following activities.

Sign-Posting and Transitions

A great way to help readers comprehend the flow of ideas is include things like sign-posts and transitions. A sign-post is basically just language to point out different parts of the essay for readers in order to help them navigate your ideas. For example,  strong topic sentences  are a good as sign-posts because they tell readers what upcoming paragraphs are going to be about.  Transition sentences  can help readers understand how the ideas you were just discussing in a previous paragraph relate to what's coming up with the next paragraph. Here are a couple questions that can help you brainstorm sign-posting statements. After you brainstorm, you can then revise these sign-posting sentences so they fit better with your writing.

• Try starting a sentence by writing "In this paragraph, I will discuss..." After you complete this sentence, you can then revise it to make it fit better with your writing.
• "In the previous paragraph I discuss [purpose of paragraph 1] and this helps better understand [purpose of paragraph 2] because..."
• This paragraph supports my argument because..."
• While I discuss [previous idea or concept] above, I will now talk about [new idea or concept] because..."

Revision on the Sentence-Level

Verbs, or stuff we do.

A sentence seems clear when its important actions are in verbs. Compare these sentences where the actions are in bold and the verbs are UPPERCASE:

Because we  LACKED  data, we could not  EVALUATE  whether the UN  HAD TARGETED  funds to areas that most needed assistance. Our  lack  of data PREVENTED  evaluation  of UN  actions  in  targeting  funds to areas most in  need  of  assistance .

Nominalization

Turning a verb or adjective into a noun is called a “nominalization.” No element of style more characterizes turgid writing, writing that feels abstract, indirect, and difficult, than lots of nominalizations, especially as the subjects of verbs.  

Our request IS that you DO a review of the data.     vs. We REQUEST that you REVIEW the data.    

Try this:  when editing, underline the actions in your sentences.  Are those actions in the form of verbs?  If not, you might try rewriting your sentences to turn those actions into the main verbs in the sentence.

Active and Passive Verbs

Some critics of style tell us to avoid the passive everywhere because it adds a couple of words and often deletes the agent, the “doer” of the action.  But in fact, the passive is sometimes the better choice.  To choose between the active and passive, you have to answer two questions:

• The president  was rumored  to have considered resigning.
• Those who  are found  guilty can  be fined .
• Valuable records should always  be kept  in a safe.
• Because the test  was not done , the flaw  was not corrected .
• The weight given to industrial competitiveness as opposed to the value we attach to liberal arts   will determine  our decision.  
• Our decision  will be determined   by the weight we give to industrial competitiveness as opposed to the value we attach to the liberal arts .

Try this:   We need to find our passive verbs before we can evaluate whether or not to change them.  While you’re editing, try underlining all the “to be” verbs, since these are often paired with other verbs to make passive constructions.  The verbs you’re looking for are: am, are, is, was, were, be, become, became.  Once you’ve identified these verbs, check to see if they are necessary, or if the sentence would be clearer or stronger without them.  Example:  “There is one explanation in the story…” vs “The story explains…”

Writing is more coherent when readers are able to make connections across sentences and paragraphs. On the sentence level, this can include when the last few words of one set up information that appears in the first few words of the next.  That’s what gives us our experience of flow.

• Begin sentences with information familiar to your readers.  Readers get that information from two sources:  first, they remember words from the sentence they just read.  Second, readers bring to a sentence a general knowledge of its subject.  In a paper on black holes, for example, readers would find references to “astronomers”  familiar, even without prior mention.
• End sentences with information that readers cannot anticipate.  Readers prefer to read what’s easy before what’s hard, and what’s familiar and simple is easier to understand that what’ new and complex.  

Compare these two passages:

Try this:  While editing, check for these words: this, these, that, those, another, such, second, or more. Writers often refer to something in a previous sentence with these kinds of words. When you use any of those signals, try to put them at or close to the beginning of the sentence that you use them in.

Here are some tips to help your writing become more precise and cut out extra words.

• Delete what readers can infer.  This can include redundant categories like “period of time,” “pink in color,” or “shiny in appearance.
• Can you make sense of the negatives in this sentence?

Except when you have failed to submit applications without documentation, benefits will not be denied.

This handout contains excerpts from Joseph M. Williams'  Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace ( New York: Longman, 2000).

Cohesion Strategies: A List of Transitional Words and Phrases

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Here we'll consider how transitional words and phrases can help make our writing clear and cohesive.

A key quality of an effective paragraph is unity . A unified paragraph sticks to one topic from start to finish, with every sentence contributing to the central purpose and main idea of that paragraph.

But a strong paragraph is more than just a collection of loose sentences. Those sentences need to be clearly connected so that readers can follow along, recognizing how one detail leads to the next. A paragraph with clearly connected sentences is said to be cohesive .

The following paragraph is unified and cohesive. Notice how the italicized words and phrases (called transitions ) guide us along, helping us see how one detail leads to the next.

Why I Don't Make My Bed

Ever since I moved into my own apartment last fall, I have gotten out of the habit of making my bed--except on Fridays, of course, when I change the sheets. Although some people may think that I am a slob, I have some sound reasons for breaking the bed-making habit. In the first place , I am not concerned about maintaining a tidy bedroom because no one except me ever ventures in there. If there is ever a fire inspection or a surprise date, I suppose I can dash in there to fluff up the pillow and slap on a spread. Otherwise , I am not bothered. In addition , I find nothing uncomfortable about crawling into a rumpled mass of sheets and blankets. On the contrary , I enjoy poking out a cozy space for myself before drifting off to sleep. Also , I think that a tightly made bed is downright uncomfortable: entering one makes me feel like a loaf of bread being wrapped and sealed. Finally , and most importantly , I think bed-making is an awful way to waste time in the morning. I would rather spend those precious minutes checking my email or feeding the cat than tucking in corners or snapping the spread.

Transitional words and phrases guide readers from one sentence to the next. Although they most often appear at the beginning of a sentence, they may also show up after the subject .

Here are some of the most common transitional expressions in English, grouped according to the type of relationship shown by each.

1. Addition Transitions

and also besides first, second, third in addition in the first place, in the second place, in the third place furthermore moreover to begin with, next, finally Example " In the first place , no 'burning' in the sense of combustion, as in the burning of wood, occurs in a volcano; moreover , volcanoes are not necessarily mountains; furthermore , the activity takes place not always at the summit but more commonly on the sides or flanks; and finally , the 'smoke' is not smoke but condensed steam." (Fred Bullard, Volcanoes in History, in Theory, in Eruption)

2. Cause-Effect Transitions

accordingly and so as a result consequently for this reason hence so then therefore thus Example "The study of human chromosomes is in its infancy, and so it has only recently become possible to study the effect of environmental factors upon them." (Rachel Carson, Silent Spring)

3. Comparison Transitions

by the same token in like manner in the same way in similar fashion likewise similarly Example "The heaping together of paintings by Old Masters in museums is a catastrophe; likewise , a collection of a hundred Great Brains makes one big fathead." (Carl Jung, "Civilization in Transition")

4. Contrast Transitions

but however in contrast instead nevertheless on the contrary on the other hand still yet Example "Every American, to the last man, lays claim to a 'sense' of humor and guards it as his most significant spiritual trait, yet rejects humor as a contaminating element wherever found. America is a nation of comics and comedians; nevertheless , humor has no stature and is accepted only after the death of the perpetrator." (E. B. White, "The Humor Paradox")

5. Conclusion and Summary Transitions

and so after all at last finally in brief in closing in conclusion on the whole to conclude to summarize Example "We should teach that words are not the things to which they refer. We should teach that words are best understood as convenient tools for handling reality. . . Finally , we should teach widely that new words can and should be invented if the need arises." (Karol Janicki, Language Misconceived)

6. Example Transitions

as an example for example for instance specifically thus to illustrate Example "With all the ingenuity involved in hiding delicacies on the body, this process automatically excludes certain foods. For example , a turkey sandwich is welcome, but the cumbersome cantaloupe is not." (Steve Martin, "How to Fold Soup")

7. Insistence Transitions

in fact indeed no yes Example "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else." (John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money)

8. Place Transitions

above alongside beneath beyond farther along in back in front nearby on top of to the left to the right under upon Example "Where the wall turns up to the right you can continue by the beck but a better path is to be found by turning with the wall and then going to the left through the bracken." (Jim Grindle, One Hundred Hill Walks in the Lake District)

9. Restatement Transitions

in other words in short in simpler terms that is to put it differently to repeat Example "Anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer studied the few peaceful human tribes and discovered one common characteristic: sex roles were not polarized. Differences of dress and occupation were at a minimum. Society, in other words , was not using sexual blackmail as a way of getting women to do cheap labor, or men to be aggressive." (Gloria Steinem, "What It Would Be Like If Women Win")

10. Time Transitions

afterward at the same time currently earlier formerly immediately in the future in the meantime in the past later meanwhile previously simultaneously subsequently then until now Example At first a toy, then a mode of transportation for the rich, the automobile was designed as man's mechanical servant. Later it became part of the pattern of living.

• How to Use Repetition to Develop Effective Paragraphs
• Complete List of Transition Words
• Cohesion Exercise: Combining and Connecting Sentences
• Transitional Expressions
• Definition and Examples of a Transition in Composition
• What Is Cohesion in Composition?
• Definition and Examples of Paragraphing in Essays
• How to Write a Paragraph Developed With Reasons
• How to Teach Topic Sentences Using Models
• Paragraph Transition: Definition and Examples
• Coherence in Composition
• Take This Test and Learn How to Make Your Writing More Interesting
• What Is a Topic Sentence?
• Evaluating a Process Analysis Essay
• What Is an Echo Word?
• Make Your Paragraphs Flow to Improve Writing

5 Last-Minute Summer Plans That Will Impress Ivy League Admissions Officers

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As summer approaches, high school students may find themselves scrambling to find ways to make the most of their time off of school. Whether they were not accepted into their top choice programs, their internships fell through, or they simply haven’t yet made a plan, it’s imperative that students find enriching ways to spend their summers. Colleges look to students’ summer activities as a means of better understanding their passions and interests, and determining the kind of community members they will be outside of the classroom.

For those with Ivy League dreams, the pressure to maximize summers to stand out in the college admissions process can feel particularly daunting. While the deadlines for prestigious academic summer programs have passed, it’s not too late to engage in meaningful summer activities that will impress Ivy League admissions officers. While many students assume that admissions committees at top schools only care about intellectual pursuits, students can convey important elements of their candidacy through a plethora of summer plans, whether academic or non-academic.

If you are still unsure of how you’ll be spending the summer months, here are five last-minute summer plans that can help you demonstrate your passion, initiative, and commitment to personal and academic growth:

1. Secure an internship.

While securing a summer internship can be challenging, it can pave the way for the rest of a student’s professional and academic journey. If you have connections with local professionals, leveraging your network to find an internship opportunity can enhance your resume, help to build your professional network, and demonstrate initiative to colleges on your list. If you choose to intern during the summer months, you can maximize your time by demonstrating your willingness to go above and beyond; take the initiative to expand your skill set and explore areas outside of your designated responsibilities. You may find a new passion or outlet for your interests in the process.

2. Get a summer job.

While many students assume colleges are uninterested in their summer jobs, with the proper strategy, thoughtfulness, and hard work, students can leverage their summer jobs to stand out to Ivy League admissions officers. Whether you’re working as a lifeguard, camp counselor, dog walker, or administrative assistant at a law office, every job offers the opportunity to demonstrate self-motivation and leadership. Stepping up in the workplace not only allows students to develop critical life skills that will carry them into their college careers, but it can also highlight students’ willingness to contribute to their communities.

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For students seeking a job or internship, sites such as LinkedIn , AngelList , and Idealist are fantastic online resources for sourcing opportunities in their interest area, location, and schedule constraints.

3. Take an online course.

Enrolling in an online course or certification program allows students to enrich their knowledge, skills, and expertise in a specific area of interest—whether it's computer science, finance, environmental science, or creative writing, among others. Platforms such as Coursera , edX , and Udemy offer a wide range of courses taught by leading experts and institutions from around the world. Select courses that align with your academic interests, intended major, or core passion, and dedicate yourself to mastering the material. Completing an online course or earning a certification demonstrates self-motivation, intellectual curiosity, and a commitment to lifelong learning—qualities highly valued by Ivy League admissions officers.

4. Volunteer in your community.

Ivy League admissions committees seek to identify students who are plugged in to issues in their community and willing to mobilize their passions to make positive change. One of the best ways to demonstrate this quality is to use your free time during the summer to volunteer. For example, you could consider volunteering at a local soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or food bank to help address food insecurity and support vulnerable populations in your community. While any type of volunteering will be beneficial for both your growth and those in need around you, it is best to identify a volunteering opportunity that aligns with your skills and interests and that you can engage with long-term throughout your high school career. By volunteering your time and energy to support those in need, you can make a tangible impact on your community while developing empathy, compassion, and a sense of social responsibility.

5. Develop your passion project.

Perhaps the most beneficial use of the summer months is brainstorming and building a dynamic passion project, a student-led initiative that puts passion into practice. Whether environmental conservation, mental health awareness, animal welfare, or technological literacy, students should be intentional about identifying their guiding interest and developing an independent project to more deeply engage with their subject or cause of choice. This could involve organizing a fundraising event, creating educational materials, or launching a social media campaign to raise awareness and mobilize support. By channeling your interests and talents into a passion project, you can make a meaningful contribution to your community while gaining greater insight into your core passions and interests.

Whatever students choose to do with their summer, they should keep in mind that all of their activities should work in tandem to tell a cohesive story through their college applications. Whether completing an internship, working a summer job, or taking a summer course, put your best foot forward and approach the process with self-reflection, motivation, and intentionality.

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