Flow: Coherence & Cohesion English 111 October 9, 2014

Writing Strategies When we write a composition, we are actually compiling a collection of smaller chunks of writing, each produced with its own rhetorical purpose in mind, making its own contribution to the whole. In this class, we will typically call these chunks writing strategies, since they are chunks of writing composed to accomplish a specific goal or task within a larger composition. For instance… Definitions of Terms Reasonable Explanations Statements of clarification Arguments Engagement with audience’s emotions Credibility Enhancements Quotations from Sources Paraphrases of sources

Writing Strategies and Flow To achieve what students often call flow, all these different strategic chunks of writing need to be assembled and stitched together, kind of like making a quilt blanket out of different squares of cloth. Arranging these squares of writing into a pleasant, logical, and understandable pattern that others can see and follow and stitching them together is called coherence. Connecting each of these squares of writing together so that the seams between them disappear and readers minds can move fluidly from one chunk of writing to the next is called cohesion Paraphrases of sources Reasonable Explanations Arguments Statements of clarification Engagement with audience’s emotions Definitions of Terms Credibility Enhancements Quotations from Sources

Coherence: Making a pattern Organizational Patterns Analysis Patterns p. 223 Cause & Effect Patterns p. 355 Classification Patterns p. 441-442 Comparison Patterns pp. 442-444 Outlining pp. 445-447 Your pattern must make sense, given your thesis, and be one that your readers can identify and follow along with. Paragraphs & Topic Sentences: pp. 424-427

Coherence: Paragraphs A paragraph is a collect of these chunks of writing, put together to support a significant part of the thesis. Multiple paragraphs can then be placed in a logical order. See MHG p. 424-427 for more on topic sentences and paragraph formation.

Coherence: Topic Sentences To make the purpose of a particular paragraph understandable to your readers, use a topic sentence (usually at the beginning of the paragraph) These topic sentences can also be used to tie paragraphs together, so readers see why you are moving from one point to the next. See MHG p. 424-427 for more on topic sentences and paragraph formation.

Cohesion: Flow Ultimately, when making a quilt, you don’t want to see the stitches, which make the quilt look unprofessional and may get snagged or torn. Likewise, when composing, after you have stitched things together coherently, you want to hide the stitches of your composition, making the whole thing sound more fluid and natural. This cohesion is the achievement of flow.

Cohesion: Transitions The principle way to achieve cohesion is with transitions, words, phrases or sentences used to tie parts of your composition together and helping your readers move naturally from one idea to the next. See MHG pp. 428-431 Time connections Space connections Idea connections Adding ideas Contrasting ideas Comparing Ideas Cause/Effect Clarifying ideas Qualifying ideas Concluding Illustrating/Giving examples Transitional Sentences & Paragraphs Headers Cohesion: Transitions Style – careful choices of words and construction of sentences – also plays a role in flow. If we make weak or incorrect word choices, clumsily construct sentences, or have too many long or short sentences, our compositions can still seem clunky, choppy, and unnatural.