However, the second versionĬontract because the topic jumps to 'the car' instead of Known information ('Sue') from the previous sentence. In the first version, the pronoun 'she' refers to Unfortunately, aĬar hit her, and she was unable to finish the quarter. We call these nouns antecedents.īy establishing a clear relationship to their antecedents, pronouns can help create cohesion. Pronouns stand in for nouns that come before them. There are a variety of ways to establish the known-new contract in your writing: This weakness is most apparent when we get to the sentence that begins with 'herein.' At this point in the passage, most readers will question what 'herein' refers to: Is it one or all of the previously mentioned topics? As a result of this ambiguity, the writer's argument remains embedded in several sentences that never quite cohere, and readers move away from the passage never having clearly understood what the writer was trying to say.

In this passage, the writer covers a lot of territory, beginning with 'hard work and perseverance,' moving quickly on to ''limited English profiency standards,'' and eventually to 'the doors to equality.' Even though these topics appear in a paragraph that focuses on a single theme-the relationship between economic success and English proficiency-as subjects of individual sentences, they bear no relationship to one another.

Only to educated individuals with English fluency. School education, the doors to equality remain closed for Than other students' (Porter 23), and without a high Students were found to be more disadvantaged economically Hard work and perseverance will lead to socioeconomic Then, still be about the vase and its condition, and not, for example,įollow the information presented like this: Sentence, becomes the known information in the second 'the vase,' which is new information in the first The person had said, 'Do you remember the vase that I like? It isīroken,' you would understand the relationship between 'the vase' and 'it.' The subject of the sentence, 'it,' doesn't have a clear referent. Without any context, 'It is broken,' you will have to ask The known-new contract identifies a way of ordering ideas or information that communicates what is already known before introducing a new topic.įor example, if someone says to you, all of a sudden and While cohesion may be achieved by a variety of means, we address two particularly effective strategies here: 1) the known-new contract We often describe writing that cohesively ties ideas together in a seamless way as writing that 'flows' Cohesive writing is writing that creates clear and logical relationships among ideas.

Cohesion in writing examples