About this unit

Students often have problems with the organization of their ideas even when writing in their first language. These problems are then amplified in learners’ second language writing. This unit aims to raise ESL students’ awareness of cohesion and cohesive devices within an essay, which consequently would improve cohesion in their writing projects.

What is cohesion?

Cohesion is the glue that keeps a piece of writing together. It relates to the flow of sentences and paragraphs from one to another and involves the tying together of old information and new. The ideas linked together smoothly clarify for readers the relationships among ideas in a piece of writing. Therefore, when sentences, ideas, and details fit together clearly, readers can follow along easily, and the writing is coherent.

To achieve cohesion, you should use verb tenses consistently and connect the parts of your essay logically by repetition of key words and sentence structures, by the judicious use of pronouns and synonyms, and by the effective placement of transitional words and phrases.