Content
The descriptive essay
-Punctuation and Capitalization
-Punctuation and Capitalization
What is Cohesion & Coherence? (Cambridge Testing Explained)This post explains an important aspect of the marking structure of the IELTS exams. Cambridge exams like IELTS, FCE, CAE and many others have strict guidelines about what makes a 5.5 or a 60%. Here are the guidelines for marking/assessing IELTS Task 1 and IELTS Task 2 writing.
One of the columns is labelled Cohesion & Coherence. This is one of the ways the writing is assessed: is the composition cohesive, is the composition coherent? (Cohesion is the noun, cohesive is the adjective; coherence is the noun, coherent is the adjective.) This is the focus on this post.
What is Cohesion & Coherence?
Cohesion and coherence aren't too difficult to explain. Cohesion refers to connectivity in a text. Coherence refers to how easy it is to understand the writing.
Cohesion & Coherence
"My favourite colour is blue. I like it because it is calming and it relaxes me. I often go outside in the summer and lie on the grass and look into the clear sky when I am stressed. For this reason, I'd have to say my favourite colour is blue."
Cohesive AND coherent: Blue > Relaxes > Clear Sky > Blue (Photos from Flickr)
This sentence is both coherent and cohesive, but let's focus on the cohesion first. I've highlighted the ways that each sentence is connected to the sentence before.
Cohesion with NO Coherence
Now, here is a sentence that has cohesion but is not coherent.
"My favourite colour is blue. Blue sports cars go very fast. Driving in this way is dangerous and can cause many car crashes. I had a car accident once and broke my leg. I was very sad because I had to miss a holiday in Europe because of the injury."
One of the columns is labelled Cohesion & Coherence. This is one of the ways the writing is assessed: is the composition cohesive, is the composition coherent? (Cohesion is the noun, cohesive is the adjective; coherence is the noun, coherent is the adjective.) This is the focus on this post.
What is Cohesion & Coherence?
Cohesion and coherence aren't too difficult to explain. Cohesion refers to connectivity in a text. Coherence refers to how easy it is to understand the writing.
Cohesion & Coherence
"My favourite colour is blue. I like it because it is calming and it relaxes me. I often go outside in the summer and lie on the grass and look into the clear sky when I am stressed. For this reason, I'd have to say my favourite colour is blue."
Cohesive AND coherent: Blue > Relaxes > Clear Sky > Blue (Photos from Flickr)
This sentence is both coherent and cohesive, but let's focus on the cohesion first. I've highlighted the ways that each sentence is connected to the sentence before.
Cohesion with NO Coherence
Now, here is a sentence that has cohesion but is not coherent.
"My favourite colour is blue. Blue sports cars go very fast. Driving in this way is dangerous and can cause many car crashes. I had a car accident once and broke my leg. I was very sad because I had to miss a holiday in Europe because of the injury."