How to Write Cohesively
This Resource Page will help you:
- Understand the significance of cohesion in academic writing
- Write logical and smooth connections between ideas
- Address your readers to guide them through your ideas
- Improve the overall readability of your written work
What is Cohesion?
In academic writing, ideas must stick together logically (cohesion) and make sense as a whole (coherence).
Coherence (i.e., “how ideas make sense as a whole”) is related to logic and flow in the text and facilitates the overall understanding of your writing.
Cohesion (i.e., “how ideas stick together”) refers to the interrelatedness of sentences in a text to create a sense of unity. Cohesion is essential because it affects how the text and the ideas are structured and ultimately understood.
Check the following example. Text A is cohesive; Text B is the same text without any cohesive elements.
This research argues against the effectiveness of a particular model of understanding teaching. The model is criticized for being limited by an intellectualist bias in its conceptualization of the mind and for having a narrow definition of excellence, particularly in the context of actual classrooms. The text suggests that excellent teachers, dealing with real-time challenges, are too immersed in the immediate classroom situation to engage in critical reflection on their beliefs. The act of stepping back and critically evaluating one's choices is seen as potentially disruptive to the flow of the classroom, missing valuable teaching opportunities. The text further describes the peculiar phenomenology of the teacher experience, emphasizing the quick and intuitive decision-making process without a reliance on consciously held beliefs. The argument concludes that teacher education programs focusing on reflective models may overlook the fundamental importance of teachers' intuitive responsiveness to classroom dynamics.
Taken from: García, J. & Lewis, T. (2014). Getting a Grip on the Classroom: From Psychological to Phenomenological Curriculum Development in Teacher Education Programs. Curriculum Inquiry, 44(2), 141-168, DOI: 10.1111/curi.12042
This research argues against the effectiveness of a particular model of understanding teaching. It is criticized for being limited by an intellectualist bias in its conceptualization of the mind and for having a narrow definition of excellence, particularly in the context of actual classrooms. Excellent teachers, dealing with real-time challenges, are too immersed in the immediate classroom situation to engage in critical reflection on their beliefs. The act of stepping back and critically evaluating one's choices is seen as potentially disruptive to the flow of the classroom, missing valuable teaching opportunities. The peculiar phenomenology of the teacher experience includes a quick and intuitive decision-making process without a reliance on consciously held beliefs. Teacher education programs focusing on reflective models may overlook the fundamental importance of teachers' intuitive responsiveness to classroom dynamics.
Text B lacks connective devices/transition phrases to guide the reader through the logical order of the arguments, so the text is disjointed and difficult to follow. Also, the second sentence uses an unclear pronoun (it) rather than repeating the key noun (the model). When you read Text B, it may sound fragmented and lacking flow, with unclear connections between sentences.
Cohesion plays an important role in guiding your readers through your writing and ideas by connecting ideas and maintaining a smooth narrative. Without cohesive devices, the text loses its structure and becomes inaccessible to the readers.
How to Write Cohesively?
Writing cohesive and coherent texts means using linguistic and structural techniques to link ideas, sentences, and paragraphs to ensure the writing is easy to follow. Effective cohesion strategies include:
1. Repeat key nouns
Repeating key nouns frequently in your paragraphs is a common strategy to make the sentences flow smoothly. Have a look at the following example and feedback:
Example: However, Mateo underlined the relation of self-transformation to social transformation, as self-love grows into collective liberation. Because Mateo expressed excitement for a world of love and joy for queer and trans people of color, mediated by the Queer Eye X Lizzo video, I asked him if he saw himself in the video now or felt that it represented a future he could be a part of someday. Mateo emphasized, “I can see myself being a part of it in the future, but right now, I’m at the beginning, the start of the line.” Mateo shared that being at the beginning, “feels like I’m more comfortable just being around myself.” He theorized that the future he imagined alongside the video “has to start with me, so I can kind of, in a way, spread it to others.”
Taken from: Shrodes, A. (2023) “The word ‘getting over’ is really weird”: Storying disability in desired futures. Curriculum Inquiry, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2023.2206932
Feedback: The key noun (Mateo) is consistently employed throughout the text to maintain sentence coherence.
2. Use pronouns consistently
In academic writing, using consistent pronouns is key for a clear and cohesive text. Since pronouns do not denote meaning by themselves, they need referents, i.e., a topic or a noun elsewhere in the text they refer to.
Example: Our experiences as white teacher educators—in our work in classrooms often filled with white women future teachers, as well as in our work with white practicing teachers, community members, and university colleagues—have taught us about the ubiquity and potency of stereotypes in the white racial imagination. As Zeus Leonardo (2005) reminded us, “Critical work on race does not only study its real manifestations and deem everything else ghosts of the real; it must critically understand … how people imagine race in their daily lives” (p. 404). We believe that our teacher education efforts are haunted and undermined by the workings and power of racist stereotypes. Our hope is that attending to Mammy and Brute Negro stereotypes with more sophistication and insight might help us, ultimately, more effectively work with white women in teacher education, particularly related to concepts of culturally relevant pedagogies. In our conclusion, we frame crucial questions and challenges that confront us, given our retelling and analysis of Danielle’s and Lily’s stories.
Taken from: Taken from: Miller, E. & Lensmire, T. (2020). Mammies, brute Negroes, and white femininity in teacher education, Curriculum Inquiry, 50(5), 400-418, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2020.1860643
Feedback: In this example, the authors refer to themselves as they examine two stories about white femininity. Pronouns are crucial in referencing earlier noun phrases (referents), as seen in the example where ‘our,’ ‘us,’ and ‘we’ refer to the authors and their involvement in the academic narrative. This enhancement in readability stems from the precision and cohesion achieved in every sentence.
3. Use transitions to link ideas
In academic writing, transition words are helpful to achieve cohesion by linking ideas and providing a sense of movement that will help your readers understand the connections you wish to convey in your text. Some transition words can be helpful to
- start a paragraph
- link secondary sentences within a paragraph
- conclude and/or bridge ideas in a paragraph to move on to the following one.
Check below different categories of transition words, their purposes and examples.
Purpose: To add extra information
Linking word examples: also, too, as well, above all, in addition, similarly, correspondingly (formal), equally, likewise, in the same way, by the same token, and. More emphatic: actually, besides, moreover, furthermore, in fact, what is more, as a matter of fact
Written sentences examples: Additionally, this study engages the AsianCrit tenet of story, theory, and praxis. CRT recognizes stories as an essential tool for the survival and liberation of oppressed groups; within CRT, stories are often used as a means of psychic self-preservation and/or to lessen members of oppressed groups’ own subordination. Furthermore, when members of oppressed groups share their stories, such storytelling may shatter complacency, challenge the status quo, and engage conscience (Delgado, 1989).
Naseem, N. (2020). “Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone”: (Re)constructing narratives of Japanese American incarceration in elementary classrooms, Curriculum Inquiry, 50(4), 309-329, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2020.1831369
Purpose: To sequence, to situate in time, to order chronologically
Linking word examples: first, second, third, then, meanwhile, in the meantime, originally, first of all, afterwards, next, eventually, subsequently, finally, at last, in the end
Written sentences examples: The language chosen to speak on behalf of the five billion inhabitants of the globe is English. Meanwhile, back on the surface of the earth, from a small radio in a township shack in Soweto, come tumbling the words of a song by Johnny Clegg and Savuka.
Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language. Routledge.
Purpose: To compare points
Linking word examples: similarly, in the same way, likewise
Written sentences examples: However, the metapragmatic evaluation “this is not an English class” raised by Valentina earlier, can easily cross over between sectors. Similarly, a negative student evaluation of a pedagogical interaction based on relevance to a specific objective, such as gaining fluency to improve employment prospects, can easily be complemented by an evaluation based on moral objectionability.
Windle, J.A. & de Araujo Rosa, J. (2023). Navigating Critical Language Education at the Crossroads of Neonationalism and Neoliberalism: The Role of Border Talk. TESOL J, 57. 752-774.
Purpose: To show differences
Linking word examples: however, on the contrary, by contrast, in contrast, on the other hand, instead, in fact, conversely, yet.
Written sentences examples: According to the JD-R model, job demands comprise job characteristics that require effort and are linked to higher strain and burnout (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). Yet, empirical studies have shown that not all job demands have direct and solely negative effects (Crawford et al., 2010); Van den Broeck et al., 2010).
Jörg, V., Hartmann, U., Philipp, A., & Kunter, M. (2023). Teachers' proactive behaviour: Interactions with job characteristics and professional competence in a longitudinal study. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 00, e12642. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12642
Purpose: to show options.
Linking word examples: alternatively, on the one hand-on the other hand, rather, Or (else)
Written sentences examples: Both positions have their limitations. On the one hand, identity politics’ inclination towards essentialism threatens to naturalize difference and reproduce dominant cultural assumptions. On the other hand, the idea that “gender” or “race” are fictions threatens to invisibilize difference altogether, along with the power relationships that create it (Alcoff, 1988, 2006).
Tien, J. (2019). Teaching identity vs. positionality: Dilemmas in social justice education, Curriculum Inquiry, 49(5), 526-550, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2019.1696150
Purpose: To concede information
Linking word examples: still, however, all the same, even so, that said, nevertheless. More formally: nonetheless, notwithstanding. More informally: anyhow, anyway, only, though, but, yet
Written sentences examples: In other words, Mock Spanish invokes stigmatizing stereotypes about Latinas/os without making such stereotypes explicit. The most profound aspect of this process, however, is not that it frames “Spanish speakers” (regardless of national background and ethnoracial identity) in particular ways, but that it specifically produces “Latina/o” as a U.S. racial category.
Rosa, J. (2016). 'From Mock Spanish to Inverted Spanglish: Language Ideologies and the Racialization of Mexican and Puerto Rican Youth in the United States', in H. Samy Alim, John R. Rickford, and Arnetha F. Ball (eds), Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race. Oxford Academic.
Purpose: To explain points.
Linking word examples: Therefore, for that matter, accordingly, on account of this, that is why.
Written sentences examples: New perspectives conveyed through shared dialogue result in complex understandings. Therefore, dialectical constructivist theory privileges a social nexus that is facilitated (Vygotsky, 1986) by an instructor rather controlled by one.
Lahey, T. (2023). From college to classroom: Using virtual collaborative inquiry to support first-year teachers with classroom management. Journal of Education, 0(0). DOI: 10.1177/00220574231166014
Purpose: To demonstrate results
Linking word examples: as a result, therefore, accordingly, consequently, in consequence, of course, hence. Formal: as a consequence, in consequence, thus.
Written sentences examples: As a result, students themselves began identifying as “people with privilege” and using the frameworks of “privileged” vs. “unprivileged” people. For example, in his final reflection on the course, Peter wrote that, “I am learning that as a person of privilege, I need to find ways to give up some power, while stewarding those things that I cannot give up.”
Tien, J. (2019). Teaching identity vs. positionality: Dilemmas in social justice education, Curriculum Inquiry, 49(5), 526-550, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2019.1696150
Purpose: To indicate directions
Linking word examples: thus, for this purpose, therefore, with this in mind
Written sentences examples: The importance of a research article is routinely measured by counting how many times it has been cited. However, treating all citations with equal weight ignores the wide variety of functions that citations perform. We want to automatically identify the subset of references in a bibliography that have a central academic influence on the citing paper. For this purpose, we examine the effectiveness of a variety of features for determining the academic influence of a citation.
Zhu, X., Turney, P., Lemire, D., & Vellino, A. (2015). Measuring academic influence: Not all citations are equal. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(2), 408-427.
Purpose: To indicate conditions
Linking word examples: if so, if not, in that case, that being so, in such an event, Then, Under such circumstances
Written sentences examples: If we accept that colonialism is varied and operates in different contexts, then our responses have to be multiple, and we are obliged to acknowledge the inherent tensions between competing visions of anti-colonialism.
Dei, G. S. & Lordan, M. (2016). Anti-colonial theory and decolonial praxis. Peter Lang.
Purpose: To sequence multiple points
Linking word examples: for one thing (... for another thing), In the first place, Secondly, next, then (again), finally, in the first/second place, first of all, to begin with, to start with; Especially in formal and technical use: we find a.... b .... c...., one ... two .... three....
Written sentences examples: First, and in the most obvious sense, English is worldly by dint of its vast global expansion. Second, English is worldly in the sense that a person may be called worldly: it has been and is constantly in the process of being changed by its position in the world. And third, it is in the world, it is part of the world; to use English is to engage in social action which produces and reproduces social and cultural relations.
Pennycook, A. (2017). The cultural politics of English as an international language. Routledge.
Purpose: To summarize and synthesize information
Linking word examples: all in all, altogether, overall, thus, in conclusion, in sum, to sum up, to conclude, to summarise, in short, after all
Written sentences examples: This code definition connects, albeit broadly, to the wider construct of autonomy referenced above but is also grounded in our data capturing teachers’ perceptions and reported actions of autonomy both in response to interview questions about the pacing guide and beyond. Thus, we conceptually aligned the notion of having autonomy with deviating from the pacing guide and approached the excerpts coded for Deviating with the goal of compiling evidence of teacher autonomy.
Jörg, V., Hartmann, U., Philipp, A., & Kunter, M. (2023). Teachers' proactive behaviour: Interactions with job characteristics and professional competence in a longitudinal study. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.1264
Purpose: To provide examples
Linking word examples: for example, namely, e.g. , for instance, to illustrate, as an example
Written sentences examples: Race is also a point of connection to the English language for critical teachers who seek to reposition English as a language of protest and solidarity, for example, through discussions of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Windle, J.A. & de Araujo Rosa, J. (2023). Navigating Critical Language Education at the Crossroads of Neonationalism and Neoliberalism: The Role of Border Talk. TESOL J, 57. 752-774.
Purpose: To explain points
Linking word examples: In other words, put differently, namely, thus, that is (to say), i.e. , (I mean), in fact.
Written sentences examples: Yet, the racializing effects of Mock Spanish do not apply to a large number of the individuals who would seem to fit into this category, namely many Spaniards and other “historically Spanish-speaking populations” that are not racialized as non-White in the ways that millions of U.S. Latinas/os are.
Rosa, J. (2016). 'From Mock Spanish to Inverted Spanglish: Language Ideologies and the Racialization of Mexican and Puerto Rican Youth in the United States', in H. Samy Alim, John R. Rickford, and Arnetha F. Ball (eds), Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race. Oxford Academic.
Purpose: To identify specific information
Linking word examples: namely, specifically, especially, in particular
Written sentences examples: We did not observe any differences in the level of teachers' personal initiative with regard to their gender, age, years of professional experience, school track or full-time versus part-time positions. Regarding the job characteristics and aspects of professional competence, only one factor, namely, personal initiative of the team, showed a significant difference between teachers of different school tracks: Higher track teachers reported significantly lower values (M = 2.72, SD = .99) than lower track teachers (M = 3.50, SD = .90, t(105) = 2.44, p = .016, d = .48).
Jörg, V., Hartmann, U., Philipp, A., & Kunter, M. (2023). Teachers' proactive behaviour: Interactions with job characteristics and professional competence in a longitudinal study. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 00, e12642. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12642
Purpose: To deduce and infer implicit information
Linking word examples: In that case, in other words, then, otherwise, else, more accurately, more precisely
Written sentences examples: “Even if [classroom management] preparation was sufficient, teacher education would need to be explicit about how classroom management could be adapted, integrated, or reconceptualized towards shifting classroom demographics” (p. 207). In other words, the SEL must be culturally compatible.
Lahey, T. (2023). From college to classroom: Using virtual collaborative inquiry to support first-year teachers with classroom management. Journal of Education, 0(0). https://doi-org.myaccess.
Purpose: To introduce new points not mentioned before
Linking word examples: incidentally, as a matter of fact, at any rate
Written sentences examples: Decolonial epistemic reconstitutions, and the politics of decolonial investigations, aim to overcome the hegemony of the “European paradigm of modernity/rationality” and take the first two trajectories (deWesternization and reWesternization) as a field of investigation. As a matter of fact, setting up the current world order as the conflict between the rise of de- Westernization and the counterrevolution of reWesternization is a decolonial conceptualization of epistemic reconstitutions to understand the current world order emerging from five hundred years of Westernization.
Mignolo, W. (2021). The politics of decolonial investigations. Duke University Press.
4. Arrange ideas in a logical order
Another method to enhance cohesion involves organizing sentences in a specific order. Your choice will depend on your topic and writing purpose. Two common forms include chronological order and logical division of ideas.
Chronological order concerns the organization of ideas representing a sequence of events or steps within a process. In the example, the authors provide a sequence of steps where they establish cohesion through strategic use of sequence markers like first, second, third, finally.
Example: First, drawing on her own experiences and critical consciousness calls as a Chicana Spanish-speaker, Andrea immediately noticed the low number of Spanish speakers in her program and the imbalanced requirements in the teacher qualification policy (Freire, 2021). In turn, Andrea and her colleagues engaged in four additional critical consciousness actions (see Palmer et al., 2019). Together they committed to developing similar habits of continuously interrogating power during regularly scheduled PLC gatherings where they reviewed DLBE policy information on program aspects whose fairness they questioned. Second, the group historicized schools in DLBE by looking backward at the history of bilingual education to have a larger sense of the possibilities for focusing on the civil rights era issues still at play in the current DLBE climate. Third, the group engaged in critical listening as they encouraged one another to be courageous and calmly express disagreement when necessary as they made different arguments for what constituted fairness. Finally, teachers got better at engaging with discomfort.
From: Valdéz, V., Delavan, G., & Freire, J. (2023). Using critical policy analysis in collaborative professional learning communities to enhance dual language bilingual educators’ critical consciousness in Lisa M. Dorner, Deborah Palmer, Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon, Dan Heiman, and Emily R. Crawford (Eds.) Critical consciousness in dual language bilingual education: Case studies on policy and practice (First Edition). Routledge.
Logical division consists of the categorization of ideas into parts for clarity, with each part discussed separately.
Example: The chapters in the teaching and teacher learning section, like the previous sections, span a broad range of contexts and experiences. Taken together, they illustrate how the overlapping actions of critical consciousness can be embodied in schools through classroom practice and teacher learning.
The first two chapters provide an intersectional lens that actively aims to interrogate binaries, to critically listen to current problems in DLBE spaces, and to accompany Black and LGBTQ+ students.
The final four chapters in the teaching and teacher learning section demonstrate the need to interrogate white-stream conceptualizations of academic achievement, bilingualism/biliteracy, and intercultural competence, the three traditional goals of DLBE (Howard et al., 2018).
From: Dorner, L. M., Palmer, D. K., Cervantes-Soon, C. G., Heiman, D., & Crawford, E. R. (Eds.). (2023). Critical consciousness in dual language bilingual education: Case studies on policy and practice (First Edition). Routledge.
Types of Transitions
Transitions in an academic text can be written using a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or even an entire paragraph. In this way, you provide your readers with signals about how to read through your text. Transitions are generally used for three purposes: linking sections, linking paragraphs and linking ideas within paragraphs.
1. Transitions between sections
This type of transition is frequent in longer texts (e.g., book chapters and scholarly papers) to link information in one section to what follows in the next. These links are necessary to ensure the continuity of the text. Note that these are larger shifts between topics than the transitions between paragraphs below.
Despite the benefits of social interaction with host-nationals, many international students experienced only superficial contact with Americans, and give up hope of establishing deep cross-cultural relationships (Mallinckrodt & Leong, 1992).
Taken from: MICUSP International Students in the United States: Developing Interpersonal Relationships for Cross-cultural Adjustment and Intercultural Maturity
This writer uses a contrastive device (Despite) to transition from the topic of the previous section (benefits) to the focus of the current section (barriers to interaction). This is the topic sentence of the first paragraph in this section.
2. Transitions between paragraphs
Transitions between paragraphs are similar to transitions between sections as their purpose is to let the readers know that the upcoming content will experience a shift (contrast, addition, further explanation, etc.) from the content of the previous paragraph. As paragraphs contain a single controlling idea, the change or shift to new arguments, ideas, and information should happen in the following paragraph. These shifts are generally still on the same topic, as opposed to the shifts between sections (new topics) outlined above. For instance, a shift between sections might be benefits -> challenges while a shift between paragraphs may look like benefit 1 -> benefit 2.
As with section transitions, paragraph transitions can be strategically positioned in different locations within the text. Oftentimes, they are located at the end of the first paragraph, the beginning of the second paragraph, or at both junctures.
Another argument for avoidance is that histories like the Holocaust are too horrific and complex for children to adequately understand, so they should not be introduced at all (Totten, 1999).
In contrast, supporters of teaching difficult histories to children have often argued for their instructive nature: to learn lessons from the past, so that we do not forget and do not repeat our mistakes (Rodríguez, 2019).
Naseem, N. (2020). “Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone”: (Re)constructing narratives of Japanese American incarceration in elementary classrooms. Curriculum Inquiry, 50(4), 309-329, DOI: 10.1080/03626784.2020.1831369
The author uses a single expression (in contrast) to signal a shift in perspective in her argumentation. She introduces a new line of thought, presenting the opposing stance of supporters who argue for the educational value of teaching difficult histories to children. This signals a shift in the narrative, emphasizing the instructive nature of difficult histories and the potential lessons that can be learned to avoid repeating mistakes.
3. Transitions within paragraphs
As with transitions between sections and paragraphs, transitions within paragraphs act as cues to help readers anticipate what is coming next as well as understand the types of logical relationships between sentences (contrast, addition, etc.). Within paragraphs, transitions tend to be single words or short phrases.
Virtually every definition of culture (e.g., Hofstede 1980, Mead 1955) suggests that it represents a coalescence of discrete behavioral norms and cognitions shared by individuals within some definable population that are distinct from those shared within other populations. These normative beliefs and behaviors provide resources for realizing individual and collective goals, and so are often institutionalized in a variety of formal and informal ways. Moreover, there exist means for transmitting beliefs and behaviors to new members of the cultural population, so that the norms defining a culture may persist over very long periods of time.
Taken from: https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/LehmanChiuSchaller2004.pdf
The use of ‘Moreover’ adds another point to the main idea of cultural norms.
Our Tips
- Achieving cohesion takes time, so be patient and practice your writing. While you write your assignments, ensure that you make conscious decisions about connecting ideas and establishing relationships among ideas and paragraphs.
- Avoid excessive use of linking words as it may overload the text, diminishing their effectiveness in maintaining flow and reader comprehension. Also, avoid only placing linking words at the beginning of the sentence (vary their usage).
- Read out loud or have a computer read your writing. Listen to your assignment and think if, first, it makes sense to you and if it will make sense to somebody else. You will be able to notice important gaps when you listen to your own writing.
- Show your paper to somebody else. Remember that cohesion concerns your readers and how they understand and react to your ideas.