1. Flow: Coherence & Cohesion
English 111
October 9, 2014

2. 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

3. 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

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

5. 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 for more on topic sentences and paragraph formation.

6. 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 for more on topic sentences and paragraph formation.

7. 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.

8. 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
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.