Cohesion

Paragraphs can help you organize your writing and lead readers through your text. By thinking carefully about how you present and organize information in each paragraph you write, you can construct meaning in more deliberate ways, which can add a lot of richness to your writing.

COHESION TYPES

While paragraphs can be one of two types — transitional (moving from one topic to another) or expository (explanatory) — paragraphs display one of three patterns: consistent topic, part-to-whole, topic progression.

CONSISTENT TOPIC

In paragraphs with consistent subject cohesion, the subjects of all sentences are the same, whether they are nouns, pronouns, or synonyms or pronouns. They all refer to the same thing.

Fluffy is my cat. She's been with me a long time. [The pronoun she refers to the noun Fluffy.]
Cats are good housepets for single people. Felines are a species that entertain themselves. [The synonym felines refers to the noun cats.]

PART-TO-WHOLE

In paragraphs with part-to-whole cohesion, the subject of internal sentences are components or aspects of the subject in the topic sentence.

Fluffy is my cat. Her name comes from how her fur looks in the sunlight. And her personality is just as warm and fuzzy as her fur. [The subject her name is an aspect of the original subject Fluffy. The subject her name is also an an aspect of the original subject Fluffy.]

TOPIC PROGRESSION

In paragraphs that are organized according to topic progression, the subject of any sentence corresponds to the last object (most recent) noun in the sentence before it.

Fluffy is my cat. Felines are good pets for people who are at work all day. This means they don't need to get "walked" like dogs. [The subject felines corresponds to the preceding object cat. The subject this corresponds to the object work all day.]

Note how the writer avoids repetition in the first two cases, where whole nouns equal whole nouns: in one case, a synonym is used; in another, a pronoun.

HOW THIS RELATES TO…

THE GIVEN–NEW CONTRACT (KNOWN–UNKNOWN)

In English, information the reader already knows is usually provided earlier in the sentence. The new information that the writer is "teaching" the reader comes later in the sentence. In the examples below, each presupposes very different information about the knowledge base of the reader:

	Given/known Reader probably already knew or is not surprised to realize	New/unknown Reader learns
Fluffy is my *cat*.	writer has some pet named Fluffy	(pet is a cat)
My cat's name is *Fluffy*.	writer has a cat	(name is Fluffy)

Paragraphs that are cohesive work because they present information in the same way. Simply put, how you present new information is based on what you think your reader already knows.

The subject of the sentence is the given (i.e. already known), and the remainder of the sentence is some sort of commentary on that subject. Once a noun is declared, that noun, having been introduced, is no longer "new" in a subsequent sentence.

QUOTATIONS

While quotation is necessary for the kind of close and careful writing ENGL 102 demands, we must work to ensure that all quotes are properly framed and attributed. Improperly framed quotes, or dropped quotes, are bad for two reasons:

All sentences in your writing should clearly be your own
It violates paragraph cohesion

Here's an example of a paragraph with a "dropped quote."

Martin Luther King writes about the harm of segregation transitive through his six-year-old daughter. "You…see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told Funtown is closed" (11).

In all cases, the subject of the second sentence should correspond (either in whole or in part) to either the last noun (daughter) or first noun (Martin Luther King). But the new subject (You) corresponds to neither. In fact, the addressee (the you) is not mentioned anywhere in the preceding sentence.

This abrupt change of topic can be be remedied by properly integrating the quotation. (As a side note, the tense should be present, because the text still reads—present tense—that way today.) Once the writer makes all the editorial changes (parts of speech, punctuation, etc.), the paragraph also becomes cohesive in addition to mechanically sound:

Martin Luther King writes about the damage of segregation transitive through his six-year-old daughter. He, too, feels the sting evidenced by the "tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told Funtown is closed" (11).

Martin Luther King writes about the damage of segregation transitive through his six-year-old daughter. She shows "tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told Funtown is closed" (11).

This paragraph now

integrates the quotation in a way that is clearly attributed
is cohesive

For citation, use:

Coastal Carolina University, Department of English, First-Year Writing Program. "Cohesion." Coastal Composition Commons, 24 August 2017, https://ccc.coastal.edu/task/102-badge-3-2/. Accessed xx xxxxxx xxxx.