Cohesion

The way that you link ideas is important in getting your message across to the reader. If ideas do not flow smoothly in the way expected by a native-speaker, then readers may not recognise what is important in your message. In other words, they may miss the point you are making. Also, if the order in which you present information does not conform to English norms, readers may feel that your writing is ‘disjointed’ (or ‘stilted’), which simply means that your ideas have not been presented logically.

The Information Principle

For academic writing to appear ‘cohesive’, it should follow a movement from ‘given’ (or accepted) information to ‘new’ information.

• Given Information is information that the reader already knows. This may be from his/her general knowledge, or it may already have been introduced by the writer earlier in the text. This knowledge is shared by both reader and writer.
• New Information is information that the reader does not yet know. It is known only to the writer. New information is the most important for the reader, because it gives the point or message of the sentence.

Text Cohesion: The term ‘cohesion’ refers to the way in which elements of language are linked together to transmit meaning. The sequence of given information followed by new information can contribute to the cohesion of a text, because the new information of one sentence often becomes the given information of the next sentence.

Oxford Cohesion Example

Examples: The Information Principle

Consider the two versions of an extract from the writing of Oxford Modern Language student. In the first version, the information principle is not observed and in the second it is. Note the impact that this has on the cohesion and 'readability' of the text:

Version 1

"Bal’mont admired the individualism of Shakespeare and the Romantics. Bal’mont was clearly influenced by the formal experimentation of English and American writers such as Shelley and Poe. Translation practices that he employed centred on his desire to remain as close as possible to the form of the original text. A foremost Symbolist theorists of literary translation was Valery Briusov, a fellow Moscow Symbolist who worked closely with Bal’mont until their aesthetic split in the mid-1910s. His overarching aim was to ‘replace the original for the Russian reader', whilst giving Russian speakers the experience of reading a foreign text in a foreign language. Translation, here, was to be carried out with the aim of transposing the timelessness of the original text to the host language."

Analysis

In the version above the information principle is not employed, and the reader may find the writing to appear unfocused or 'disjointed'. In this instance, disjointed suggests that the sentences many of the sentences do not seem to be related to the sentence that immediately proceeds it.

Version 2

"While admiring the individualism of Shakespeare and the Romantics, Bal’mont was clearly also influenced by the formal experimentation of English and American writers such as Shelley and Poe. This influence manifested itself in Bal’mont’s translation practice through his desire to remain as close as possible to the form of the original text, as was characteristic of many Symbolist translators. One of the foremost Symbolist theorists of literary translation was Valery Briusov, a fellow Moscow Symbolist who worked closely with Bal’mont until their aesthetic split in the mid-1910s . For Briusov, translation was to be carried out with the aim of transposing the timelessness of the original text to the host language. His overarching aim was to ‘replace the original for the Russian reader', whilst giving Russian speakers the experience of reading a foreign text in a foreign language."

Analysis

 In this second version the information principle is closely adhered to. The new information being introduced at the end of one sentence becomes the basis for the sentence that follows. For instance, sentence 1 introduces the notion of 'the influence of formal experimentation'; sentence 2 begins by explaining how this influence is observed. Sentence 2 ends by introducing Symbolist translators, and sentence 3 continues this thread by identifying a foremost Symbolist theorist.