ELT365 · Day 200 — Cohesion and coherence in writing

Idea — Cohesion is the surface-level linking of sentences (pronouns, connectors, lexical chains). Coherence is the underlying logical flow of ideas. Both are needed; you can have cohesion without coherence.

Example — Cohesive but not coherent: ‘I like swimming. Moreover, the sky is blue. Therefore, fish are wet.’ Each connector is used correctly; the paragraph makes no sense.

Try — Take a learner paragraph (anonymised). Underline all cohesive devices. Then ask: does the argument flow logically? Where does coherence break down? Feed back on both.

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