Connecting ideas

How to connect ideas at the sentence and paragraph level in academic writing.

What is cohesion?

Cohesion refers to the way we use vocabulary and grammatical structures to make connections between the ideas within a text. It provides flow and sequence to your work and helps make your paragraphs clear for the reader.

Cohesive devices are words and expressions that show relationships between parts of text and ideas, such as cause and effect, time, addition, or comparison and contrast.

Watch the video to learn how to make your ideas link together and your narrative flow.

Examples and tips of cohesive, critical and interpretive writing.

How can I create cohesion?

Let’s look at types of cohesive devices.

Linking words

Academic writing usually deals with complex ideas. To enable the reader to follow your thoughts, they need to be clearly and smoothly linked. To join ideas and sentences, we use a number of connecting words and phrases. For example:

Addition To add an idea

Additionally, and, also, apart from this, as well (as), in addition, moreover, further, furthermore.

Condition to provide a condition

If, in that case, provided that, unless.

For comparison To show how things are similar

Correspondingly, equally, for the same reason, in a similar manner, in comparison, in the same way, on the one hand, similarly.

For contrast To show how things are different

Alternatively, although, but, conversely, despite, even so, even though, however, in contrast, in spite of, instead, on the contrary, contrary to, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding, on the other hand, rather, still, though, yet, whereas, while.

For emphasis To put forward an idea more forcefully

Again, in fact, interestingly, indeed, it should be noted (that), more important(ly), most importantly, to repeat, (un)fortunately, unquestionably.

For illustration To provide examples

A further instance of this is..., an example of this is…, for example, for instance, such as, thus, as follows.

For restatement For rephrasing statements

In other words, more simply, namely, simply put, to put it differently / another way, such as, that is.

The cause of things To attribute the reasons for something occurring

A / the consequence of, because, due to, for, the effect of …, since, the result of …

The effect of things To show the effect of something

Accordingly, as a result/consequence, consequently, for this reason, hence, so, therefore, thus.

For concession / qualification Conceding something

Admittedly, although, clearly though, even though, however, indeed, obviously.

Generalisation Making a general statement

As a rule, for the most part, generally, in general, in most cases, normally, on the whole, usually.

Time order To indicate a chronological sequence

First, second, third (etc), next, before, earlier, finally, following, given the above, later, meanwhile, subsequently, then, to conclude, while.

A note about presentation and style

Check a usage guide for exact rules for punctuation. Many introductory phrases have a comma after them. For example, 'therefore,' and 'in addition,'.

Referring backwards

To avoid repeating words and phrases many times, we use cohesive devices to make references to other parts of a text, such as:

  • Pronouns: it, he, she, his, her, they, their
  • Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
  • Articles: a, the
  • Adverbs: previously, subsequently

The Australian prime minister has called an early election. The date was selected to coincide with the start of the Olympic Games. This decision was based on the views of his ministerial advisors, who predicted that voter confidence in the government’s policies would be strong at this time. As previously mentioned, decisions on the timing of elections are based on predictions of voter confidence in the existing government.

In the example above:

  • The date - refers back to the election date
  • This decision - refers to the prime minister calling an early election
  • His - refers to the Australian prime minister
  • this time - refers to the start of the Olympic Games
  • As previously mentioned - refers to all of the earlier information about the selection of election dates

Looking forward

We often use words and phrases to highlight new information for the reader. This helps make a smooth transition from one point to another. Such phrases include: the following, as follows, below, next, subsequently.

The following dates have been proposed for the forthcoming election: September 8, September 15 and 3 October.

The next issue to be discussed is the influence of the media on voter confidence in the government.

Connecting paragraphs

Apart from using the linking words / phrases above, showing the link between paragraphs could involve writing ‘hand-holding’ sentences. These are sentences that link back to the ideas of the previous paragraph. For instance, when outlining the positive and negative issues about a topic you could use the following:

Example (from beginning of previous paragraph):

  • One of the main advantages of X is…

When you are ready to move your discussion to the negative issues, you could write one of the following as a paragraph opener:

Example

  • Having considered the positive effects of X, negative issues may now need to be taken into account…
  • Despite the positive effects outlined above, negative issues also need to be considered...

It is always important to make paragraphs part of a coherent whole text; they must not remain isolated units.

Checking for paragraph links in your own work

When you are editing your next written assignment, ask yourself the following questions as you read through your work (Gillett, Hammond, & Martala, 2009):

  • Does the start of my paragraph give my reader enough information about what the paragraph will be about?
  • Does my paragraph add to or elaborate on a point made previously and, if so, have I made this explicit with an appropriate linking word / phrase?
  • Does my paragraph introduce a completely new point or a different viewpoint to before and, if so, have I explicitly shown this with a suitable connective?
  • Have I used similar connectives repeatedly? If yes, try to vary them using the above list.

Strategies to improve cohesion

  1. Select a piece of writing, preferably from a textbook or journal article, from your area of study.
  2. Choose a paragraph and underline or highlight all the different forms of cohesion used, such as using linking words, referring backwards, looking forwards or adding synonyms.
  3. Which forms are the most common?
  4. Choose a couple that you think are effective and practice using them in your own writing.
  5. Try to use a variety of ways to show the relationship between your ideas.
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