CONTENT

 

Coherence

 

Coherence – The ideas are arranged

according to a definite plan so that the reader

can easily follow from one point to the next.

 

 

 

Coherent paragraphs are easy to read.  The connection between sentences is clear.  As a result,

the reader is able to move easily and naturally from one sentence to the next.  The writer’s train

of thought is easy to follow.  To accomplish this, you must give some thought to how you should

organize what you’ve written.  To help all of your ideas relate to one another, you’ll want to keep

four techniques in mind:  order of ideas, repeating key words, careful pronoun reference, and

transitional expressions. Let’s take a look at each of these in more detail:

 

1. Ordering ideas --   Generally, the ideas in a paragraph are arranged in a few common
 ways.  This order depends on the kind of paragraph you are writing.  The ideas can be
arranged in chronological order.  This means that the details are in the order in which
they happened.  If a process is being described, then it is written in the order in which the
steps should be done. (For example, if you were describing the process of bathing your
dog, you’d start with the first step of setting out the shampoo. 1 or 2 sentences) The details in the paragraph can also be organized spatially.  Descriptions are often written this way.  For example, a house may be described room by room.  The details in a paragraph may also be arranged in the order of importance.  Explanatory, persuasive, and argumentative writing is frequently organized this way.  Often, it’s a good idea to begin
with the least important details and build up to the most important ones.  Then your conclusion will be strong and vigorous!   However, sometimes, you’ll want to do just the reverse and give the most compelling reason or fact first and then support it with less important ones.  In either case, the importance of ideas should be clear to your reader.

2. Repeating key words – You can emphasize the major ideas in a paragraph and carry a
thought from sentence to sentence through repetition. Notice in the sample paragraph
below how key words such as Western art and movements are repeated from sentence
to sentence. 

3. Using pronouns carefully – Another way that you can make your paragraphs coherent is
to use pronouns carefully. A pronoun must always refer back to an earlier word that is a
noun.  (Remember a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea.). By doing this, pronouns
help to bind the ideas in the paragraph more tightly together.  If you use too many
pronouns, your meaning can become confusing because your reader won’t be able to tell
which noun you’re referring back to.  But if you don’t use pronouns, you’ll end up
repeating key words too many times.  In the paragraph below, pay attention to the word it
in the first sentence, it in the third sentence, and these in the fourth sentence.  We’ve
 used colors to show the noun to which each pronoun refers.

4. Using transitional and linking expressions – You can make your paragraph stronger and more cohesive by using linking words that help the reader follow the thought from one
idea to the next.  For example, you can add another idea in a paragraph by introducing it
with an expression like “in addition” or “also.” You might use the word “therefore” or
“consequently” to show that an idea is the result of a preceding idea.  In the paragraph
below, the transitions move the reader forward to the next idea.  Notice the word “then” at
the beginning of the third sentence.  It signals you to move on  to the next idea.  Toward
the end of the paragraph the word “therefore” let you know that the following sentence
will state the result of information given up to that point.

Let’s take a look at a sample paragraph with these kinds of connections.  The same paragraph appears below four different times.  The notes in the right hand column give  you an explanation of the technique used to create coherence in the paragraph on the left.  The final paragraph shows you how all of these techniques work together to create a coherent paragraph.

 

 

Instead of looking at major themes and design elements of

Western art through individual masterpieces, an easier

approach is to look at it through time.  Different movements in Western Art spawned specific styles, for a period of time.  Then the world saw the emergence of a new style, which either built upon the last style or emerged as a reaction to it.  Within these different movements, we can see distinct artistic styles, elements, and motifs.  Often these disappear for hundreds of years, only to resurface when a new movement starts.  Therefore, the simplest way of getting a handle on Western art is to understand the major movements in art.

 

 

 

Notice how the key phrase

Western art and key word

movements are repeated.

 

 

Instead of looking at major themes and design elements of

Western art through individual masterpieces, an easier approach is to look at it through time.  Different movements in

Western art spawned specific styles, for a period of time.  Then

the world saw the emergence of a new style, which either built

upon the last style or emerged as a reaction to it.  Within these

different movements, we can see distinct artistic styles,

elements, and motifs.  Often these disappear for hundreds of

years, only to resurface when a new movement starts. 

Therefore, the simplest way of getting a handle on Western art

is to understand the major movements in art.

 

 

 

Notice how pronouns refer

back to nouns.  This also helps

to thread together meaning in

the paragraph.

 

 

Instead of looking at major themes and design elements of

Western art through individual masterpieces, an easier

approach is to look at it through time.  Different movements in

Western art spawned specific styles, for a period of time.  Then

the world saw the emergence of a new style, which either built

upon the last style or emerged as a reaction to it.  Within these

different movements, we can see distinct artistic styles,

elements, and motifs.  Often these disappear for hundreds of

years, only to resurface when a new movement starts. 

Therefore, the simplest way of getting a handle on Western art

is to understand the major movements in art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The word Therefore is a signal

that the following sentence will

state the result of information

given so far in the paragraph.

 

 

Instead of looking at major themes and design elements of

Western art through individual masterpieces, an easier

approach is to look at it through time.  Different movements in

Western art spawned specific styles, for a period of time.  Then

the world saw the emergence of a new style, which either built

upon the last style or emerged as a reaction to it.  Within these

different movements, we can see distinct artistic styles,

elements, and motifs.  Often these disappear for hundreds of

years, only to resurface when a new movement starts. 

Therefore, the simplest way of getting a handle on Western art

is to understand the major movements in art.

 

 

 

Notice how all of these

techniques work together to

create coherence.

 

 

To read more about coherence, click here to visit the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.  You might also want to read more about coherence at another website.  Click here to go to Literacy Education Online.

 

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Assignment 4.5 Coherence

 

Self-Portrait

The following two paragraphs are taken from the beginning of a book called The World of Van Gogh 1853 – 1890.

 

This is part of a Time – Life Library of Art series, written by Robert Wallace and the Editors of Time – Life Books. The

self portrait of Vincent van Gogh at the right is housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

 

 

Click here to go the Institute’s website to read more about Vincent van Gogh.

Read each paragraph below  and answer the questions that follow.

If there is one fact about Vincent van Gogh that is well known, it is that he cut off his ear and gave it to a prostitute.  The act is not at all important in itself, but it is wildly disconcerting, and obscures the whole picture of the artists.  Even the most sophisticated reader, on picking up a book about Van Gogh, cannot help but wonder when he will come to the part about the ear.  In anticipating it, he may skim over information that is a hundred fold more pertinent.  Having got past it, he may feel that all else is anticlimactic.  Perhaps it is best to meet the problem head-on:  the part about the ear will be found at the end of Chapter 5.

 

  1. Find two examples of key words or expressions that are repeated.
  2. Find two examples of pronoun reference.  List the pronoun and the word to which it
    refers.
  3. Find one example of a transitional word or expression.

 

Now that the ear (in fact merely the ear lobe) has been removed, it may be possible to take a more relaxed view of the unhappy man who removed it.  Vincent van Gogh, who died at 37, in 1890, had one of the briefest careers in art history.  It spanned only 10 years – and of these, the first four were devoted almost exclusively to drawing.  But the volume of his output was astonishing.  Close to 1,700 of his works survive, almost 900 drawings and more than 800 paintings, made in volcanic outbursts of creation that sometimes saw him produce a canvas a day for weeks on end. During his lifetime he sold only one painting (for the equivalent of $80), and among his last recorded words was the questions, “But what’s the use?”  The use, of course, became apparent within 25 years after his death.  Together with Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat

and Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh is now ranked as one of the found fathers of modern art.

 

  1. Find two examples of key words or expressions that are repeated.
  2. Find two examples of pronoun reference.  List the pronoun and the word to which it
    refers.
  3. Find one example of a transitional word or expression.

   

Be sure to paste your answer into an assignment form and e-mail to your teacher with the subject line L4.5 Coherence

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In the next module, we’ll continue to think about how paragraphs are “packaged.”  We’ll look at a number of ways that paragraphs can be developed.  You’ll have a chance to practice these by writing your own paragraphs as well.  This will be very useful to you in your writing for college.

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