Cohesive writing

Cohesive writing and signposting

How to link ideas logically

What is cohesion?

Cohesion is a quality of effective writing that connects ideas, making it easier to follow. Your academic writing should contain logical links between sentences, phrases, and ideas so that the facts, claims, and evidence flow seamlessly.

Cohesive writing:

• Helps readers understand how the details in your assignment relate to your overall argument.
• Makes clear connections between your ideas.
• Ensures your writing has a logical flow.

Cohesive devices are the tools used to connect your ideas and make your writing more coherent and logical. They create links between your ideas, topics, sentences and paragraphs.

How to create cohesion

Signposts

Signposts (or transition signals) signify the physical movement through your academic writing and let the reader know exactly where they are. Signposting can be as simple as “First,” “Next,” “Lastly”. Signposts can also indicate important elements of your writing, such as your position, key points, and your conclusions.

Examples:

• This paper argues that…
• This essay critically examines…
• This essay will discuss three approaches to the issue of...'
• In conclusion,…

Signposts can also explain movement from one idea to another.

Examples:

• One aspect which illustrates … can be identified as …
• As discussed/explained earlier, …
• It is clear that... I will therefore now consider…
• This essay will now discuss …
• One of the most significant factors in… is...
• Another essential point…

Signal or link words and phrases 

Signal or link words and phrases are types of transition signals that show the reader how your ideas are connected, in which order, or in what way they are connected. 

In academic writing, your ideas need to be connected according to some kind of logic. The connections may have to do with cause & effect (because, so, as a result), or time (first, next, then), or simple addition (and, in addition, further, moreover) or comparison & contrast (however, on the other hand). These sorts of connecting words join different parts of a text together in a way that creates a relationship of logic.

Examples:

• Cause and effect – e.g. “because”
• Comparison – e.g. “similarly”
• Contrast – e.g. “although”
• Addition – e.g. “in addition…”
• Examples – e.g. “specifically…”
• Conclusion – e.g. “To conclude…”
• Time sequence – e.g. “firstly…”

The following words and phrases can be used to help readers see relationships between sentences and paragraphs, and connect different parts of the text logically:

Pronouns

Pronouns can be used to refer back to topics and help avoid repeating words and phrases many times. Topic and content words, usually nouns, adverbs and adjectives, can be replaced with pronouns to create a clear and cohesive text, for example, using “it” to refer to a noun mentioned previously.

We may refer to “the Australian government” and later to “it”, or we might refer to “the Parliament House” and then later in the same text to “this location”. We can present an idea (e.g. “The five moments of hand hygiene provide effective infection control”) and recall the idea later through “This procedure”.

Example:

Although television violence can have damaging effects on children’s social development, it has not been reduced by censorship measures.

When we use pronouns to refer back to something already mentioned in a text, we must ensure readers can easily know which item is being referred to. Only use pronouns to refer to an item already mentioned in the same sentence, or the sentence immediately preceding.

Unclear example: A key difference between modern artists and classical artists is that they were more expressive, free, and less formal.

In this example, it is hard to tell which artists were more expressive, free, and less formal. Was it the modern artists or the classical artists?

Revision: A key difference between modern artists and classical artists is that the more recent artists were more expressive, free, and less formal.

Synonyms

Synonyms help avoid repetition of topic/content words within your paragraphs. Cohesive threads are created in written text through the use of synonyms and alternative words. This maintains the same meaning while avoiding boring repetition of the same word (e.g. ‘big’ is another word for ‘large’; ‘harmful’ is another word for ‘detrimental’). In the following example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is referred to again in the second sentence without using the same name:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced conditions on its recent decision to assist debtor countries. Since its creation, the organisation has imposed structural readjustment on many of the world’s poorer nations.

Caution - when using synonyms, check if the word has the same meaning. Using the wrong synonym can completely change the meaning of the sentence.

Links:

• Charles Sturt University – Linking words and phrases (PDF)
• University of Newcastle – Transition words and phrases (PDF)