What is Coherence and Cohesion
Organizing your essay logically and correctly falls under the "Coherence and cohesion" assessment criteria of IELTS exam writing task 2.
Coherence explained
Coherence is about writing your essay in a logical structure so that :
- It has clear progression of ideas towards the conclusion.
- Sequence of ideas make sense.
- Essay is easy ot follow and understand.
Cohesion explained
Cohesion refers to the varied and appropriate use of cohesive devices (e.g. logical connectors, conjunctions and pronouns) to assist in making clear the relationships between and within sentences.
So Coherence is the big picture on how your essay is flowing throughout the paragraphs, while Cohesion is at the smaller level of sentences, how you are sentences are connected using linking words, pronouns and substitutions.
You can read more about Coherence and Cohesion at official BritishCouncil site here.
Three ways to add cohesion in your essay:
Cohesion using Linking words
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Sequencing or Beginning | Firstly, Secondly, Next, To begin with, Most significant advantage, Most significant problem, First of all, Nowadays, Meanwhile |
| Switching/Contrasting Ideas | On the other hand, However, Neverthless, Secondly, Alternatively, Conversely, Admittedly, In contrast, In contrary, In spite of, Having said that, On the contrary, Nevertheless, Unfortunately |
| Giving examples or evidence | For example, To illustrate, For instance, To illustrature this point, Namely, With reference to, With regard to, In the case of, As shown by |
| Description/Comparing/Explaining results | as a result, as a consequnece, therefore, the result of this is, similarly, additionally, as a matter of fact, by the same token, comparatively, correspondigly, coupled with, in the same way, in like manner, in the first place, in the light of, of course,, likewise, generally speaking, in short, in brief, by and large, basically |
| Providing opinion | In my opinion, Personally, In my view, In my humble opinion, I believe that, I think that, I disagree, I am of opinion |
| Drawing conclusion | To conclude, In conclusion, To sum up, Having looked at both sides, To summarise, For that reason, In all, In summary, In short, In a nutshell, To sum up, In brief |
Cohesion through Pronouns
Pronouns reduce repetition, which improves the clarity, pace, and flow of a sentence or paragraph. For example,
"I am very happy to receive this award. I would like to thank my wife and kids, without them I wouldn't be standing here accepting this."
Cohesion through Substitution
Synonyms help you avoid repetiting same words. You can use synonym to expand your ideas.