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Writing in the Second Language Class

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Coherence and cohesion in student writing

Students' writing often fails in the area of logic:
For example, they may be able to write two grammatical accurate, but non-sequitor sentences.

Attention should therefore be given in the writing class to rhetorical organisation.

See books on methods of topic development within paragraph and essay writing: e.g. listing, enumeration, exemplification, contrast & comparison, exposition, chronology.

There is a need to teach coherence as well as cohesion. See exercises on this site on logical connectors (e.g. and, but, so, because) and logical cohesive devices or discourse markers (e.g. moreover, however, on the other hand, alternatively).

Practice exercises targeted at logical expression:

• logical connectors (e.g. and, or, but, so, because) lower intermediate
• logical connectors (e.g. and, or but, so, because) higher intermediate
• conjunctions and adverbials - cause, reason, result, purpose
• TABLE of discourse markers
1. ADDITION - moreover | furthermore | and | also | too | as well | equally
2. ANTHISESIS - however | nevertheless | on the other hand | but | whereas
3. COMPARISON - compared with | in comparison with | similarly | in the same way
4. REASON / CAUSE - as | since | because | due to | owing to | because of | out of
5. RESULT / SUMMARY - as a result | consequently | so | therefore | then | in conclusion | in all | in brief | in short | in summary
6. PURPOSE - so that | in order that | in order to | to | for | for the sake of
7. EXAMPLE - for example | for instance | namely | that is to say | what I mean is
8. ORDER OF EVENTS - first(ly) | second(ly) | finally | first | next | then | after that | lastly
9. TIME SEQUENCE - at first | after a while | in the end | finally
10. RE-EXPRESSION - in other words | that is to say | alternatively | rather
11. DEDUCTION - this means that | in that case it follows that | then | otherwise
12. SIDETRACKING - incidentally | by the way | to turn to | come to mention it
• Excercises to practise the 12 categories of discourse markers (above)

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