Analysis of the Coherence Principle in English Writing

Coherence refers to the principle that all paragraphs， sentences or ideas in a piece of writing fit together so well that they form a united whole. The development of a  coherent writing is smooth both in structure and logic， with all paragraphs and sentences closely sticking to one central idea.

The paper will be unfolded in two parts： Coherence at the overall level means that the structure of a piece of writing should cling to the central idea and coherence at the local level means that coherence lies between different paragraphs and in every paragraph different sentences are also linked to each other. The corpus are taken from College Writing Skills with Readings1 written by native speakers and foreign scholars which has the important reference value.

Coherence at the overall level

Write a good title. A good title will not only match the central idea closely but also arouse readers interest or deep thinking. Like “Propaganda techniques in todays advertising” which is explicit enough not only for readers to understand， but also provide a development frame with the writer.

Make sure paragraphs are related to the central idea. An effective methods is to use topic sentence which is supported by the following paragraphs. In “How to make it in college， now that youre here” the author writes in the introduction “These are the inside tips every student needs to do well in school. Ive put myself in your place， and Im going to answer the questions that will cross （or have already crossed） your mind during your stay here”. It is a brief and accurate summary of the topic and the following part will not run far from it.

Make the end echo with the beginning. In “How to do well on a job interview”， the author makes a comparison of seeking job to “winning a game”， she starts with “the job-interview game may not be much fun， nut it is a game you can win if you play it right”. At the end of passage， she also mentions “the day will come when you are the one who wins the job”. This verb “win”， reflecting the central idea of winning the job interview game both at the start and the end.

Coherence at the local level

Achieve coherence between paragraphs. The most useful way is to arrange different paragraphs in a logical order. Even if all paragraphs are about the same subject， an essay lacks coherence if these paragraphs are not arranged spatially， chronologically or logically. For example， in “How to do well on a job interview”， three pieces of suggestions are arranged in a chronological order during the interview process： “Present yourself as a winner”; “Be ready for the interviewers questions”; “Send a thank-you note”.

Use transitional words or phrases to create links. Putting an emphasized point at the end of a paragraph or a sentence that it leads to the next， which is a simple means of ensuring clear and rational connections between different paragraphs.

Repeat key words and phrases. In a paragraph， repeating key words and phrases connects the sentences to one another and to the paragraphs main idea.

Set up a study place. Those students you see “studying” in the cafeteria or game room arent learning much. You just cant learn when youre distracted by people and noise. Even the library can be a bad place to study if you constantly find yourself watching the clouds outside or the students walking through the stacks.

The repetition of “study” emphasize the idea of setting up a study place. Repeating key words and phases is always a safe way to lay stress on our points and effectively restrict the discussing scope within the intended range.

As an essential principle of English writing， we must give the highest priority to coherence when we write. What we should keep in minds is， the fundamental requirement of writing is to convey our own ideas clearly. If a rhetorical flourishing essay lacks of coherence and it is hard for readers to understand， it is definitely a failure.

References：

[1]Langan， John： College Writing Skills with Readings （6th Edition）. （《美國大学英语写作》第六版）[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社.

[2]Pinkham， Joan. The Translators Guide to Chinglish[C]. 2000.

[3]Haliday， M. A. K. An Introduction to Functional Grammar （3rd Edition）.[C]. 2004.

[4]Haliday， M. A. K. Categories of the theory of grammar[J]. Word 17： 241-292，1961.

[5]Kirszner， Laurie G， & Stephen R. Mandel. The Wadworth Handbook （10th Edition）[C]. Wadworth， Cengage Learning， 2014.

[6]Martin， J R. Christian， M I M Matthiessen[C]. Clare， Painter. Deploying Functional Grammar. 2010.

【作者简介】王雅萱，国际关系学院。