Cohesion and coherence: connect sentences without hiding the logic

🔗 Cohesion is visible linking; coherence is meaningful unity

Cohesive devices connect parts of a text on the surface. Coherence is the reader’s ability to follow a consistent topic, relationship and progression. A paragraph may contain many connectors yet remain incoherent if its claims do not form a logical line.

Three cohesive resources

• Reference: pronouns and demonstratives must have a clear antecedent.
• Lexical chains: controlled repetition, synonyms and related terms maintain the topic.
• Conjunctions: however, therefore, for example, in addition signal a relationship already supported by the ideas.

Information flow

Place familiar information early and new information later when possible. The new element can become the starting point of the next sentence. This given–new progression reduces abrupt topic jumps.

⚠️ “Therefore” does not create causation

A connector labels a relation; it cannot supply missing reasoning or evidence. Check whether the premises genuinely support the conclusion and whether a pronoun could refer to more than one noun.

Editing test

Write the function of each sentence in the margin: claim, evidence, explanation, limitation or implication. If the sequence has a gap, revise the reasoning before adding more transition words.