Coherence

COHERENCE Coherence and Unity are related, but they are not the same thing. You may have a unified paragraph in which all the sentences are relevant to the controlling idea of the topic sentence, but it may leave your reader somewhat confused. Somehow, the paragraph lacks smoothness and clarity - the ideas are mixed up, the sentences are not clearly and logically related, the writing has no rhythm. In short, the paragraph lacks coherence. There are three devices that will help us to achieve coherence in our writing. They are: * TRANSITIONAL WORDS AND PHRASES THAT SHOW SPECIFIC KINDS OF RELATIONSHIPS Transitional words and phrases signal specific kinds of relationships between the words in sentences, between sentences in a paragraph and between paragraphs in a composition. Here are some of the more common transitional words and phrases and the relationships they show: a. To show addition: and, also, again, as well as, besides, moreover, furthermore, in addition, likewise, both - and not only - but also b. To show concession: although, though, even though, even if, granted that c. To show time: once, before, after, afterwards, always, at once, as soon as, eventually, to begin with, first (second, third), in the meantime, in the past (future) later, then, next, until, at last, finally, from that time on, since then d. To show place: in front of, on the other side, behind, inside, outside, nearby, next to, opposite, beyond, below, under, at this point e. To show a result or indicate a conclusion: as a result, for this reason, consequently, accordingly, therefore, thus, hence, then f. To compare: similarly, in the same way, in like manner g. To contrast: but, even so, in contrast, in spite of, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the contrary, otherwise, yet h. To illustrate or explain: for example, for instance, take the case of, namely,