Hi, in today’s lesson we are continuing the series about how to improve your writing in English.
When you write, one thing examiners are looking is coherence and cohesion.
What does this mean?
Well, basically, coherence basically means your writing is easy to follow and
understand and cohesion is how we connect ideas.
So firstly, let’s look at coherence. Your writing is coherent if you write in paragraphs
and the paragraphs are logically sequenced and organised in a
way that is clear and leads the reader to a natural conclusion.
If you want your writing to be coherent you must plan.
So many students fail to plan and you know Benjamin Franklin said,
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Spend a few minutes planning your writing. It is really worth it.
For example, you might be asked to write an essay with the following question:
Some people think the way to solve global
environmental problems is to increase the cost of fuel.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
A Possible structure could be:
The first paragraph, your Introduction. Here you paraphrase the question and you could include your opinion
Next comes the body paragraphs – firstly you could look at
the advantages to increasing the price of fuel
Then another new body paragraph – where you
discuss the disadvantages to increasing the price of fuel.
And finally, a conclusion- you could also include your opinion here too.
This is a question of personal choice.
But don’t forget to put your opinion as this is explicitly asked for in the question.
Plan your essay like this before you start writing.
It is very important to write in paragraphs.
Paragraphs give structure to your writing.
So, a new idea needs a new paragraph.
Or to make your writing coherent I would suggest that you use a topic sentence.
What is this?
A topic sentence essentially tells readers about the rest of the paragraph.
It is like a signpost and tells the reader what to expect in the paragraph.
It alerts them to the most important point in the paragraph.
All sentences after it have to give more information about that sentence,
prove it by offering facts about it, or describe it in more detail.
For example, with this sample exam question:
Every country in the world has problems with pollution
and damage to the environment.
Do you think these problems can be solved?
Notes Write about:
1. transport
2. rivers and seas
3 ….. ( your own idea)
So here in the second paragraph, you could write something like this:
Transport has a major impact on the environment.
Much transport is powered by fossil fuels
which causes an increase in Co2 emissions.
For example, there are millions of cars on the planet
and the vast majority of them are puffing out fumes into the air that we breathe.
In addition, airplanes are filling our skies and they too contribute enormously to climate change.
Whereas bicycles are a green form of transport we should use more and more.
So here you can see the topic sentence.
Transport has a major impact on the environment.
This is signposting to the reader that this is what your paragraph is about.
So here in the second sentence we explain this sentence and then we give examples.
A simple recipe for effective paragraphs is IEE. idea, explain and examples.
So, how do I come up with a topic sentence?
And what makes a good one?
Ask yourself what’s going on in your paragraph.
Why have you chosen to include the information you have?
Why is the paragraph important in the context of your argument?
What point are you trying to make?
Now let’s look at cohesion.
This is how we connect ideas in our writing.
To help do this you can use linking words and expressions
to help link paragraphs and connect ideas.
But don’t panic, I have made a lesson on just that
and you can check that out here, up here clicking the link
or there is a link in the comment section when you have finished watching this lesson.
A word of warning about the language of linking words to connect paragraphs and ideas.
Don’t overuse them!
They are useful but should be used carefully
and overuse can be confusing or annoying for the reader.
Also generally don’t always use linking words at the beginning of sentences,
try and show more variety of where you use them.
For example:
Despite the rain, they still played the football match.
Here, we've got it at the beginning.
You could say:
They still played the football match despite the rain.
So, in the second sentence, you can see we have put the linking word despite
in the middle of the sentence instead of at the beginning.
Another way to increase the cohesion of your writing is to use pronouns to reference previously mentioned nouns.
For example: I would like to thank my colleagues. Without them, I wouldn’t be standing here today.
So here we use the pronoun them to replace the previously mentioned noun, colleagues.
And finally, don’t repeat words.
Think of another way of describing something to show you range of language.
For example:
Famous people deserve a private life. Celebrities also sell newspapers.
So instead of repeating “celebrities” another way
of saying this is to refer to them as famous people.
So, to improve both your coherence and cohesion you should, practice writing essays.
Find a friend who is writing in English too and work together.
Review your writing, or get your friend to review your writing and you review theirs
and circle the different linking words used.
Then think about how you could use different words to avoid repetition.
Cambridge has a software called Write and Improve,
you can find it at this address.
It is a free tool that helps you improve your English writing.
Check it out.
And keep practising.
Remember practice makes perfect.
and Good Luck!
So that’s it for today and I hope you feel more confident when writing in English.
Remember to like this lesson if you found it useful.
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or anyone taking written English exams.
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So that's it for today. Take care and see you very soon.
Bye, bye.