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At the end of the lesson, you will understand how to create a coherent paragraph.
A coherent paragraph expresses the main idea in a clear, logical, easy-to-follow sequence. Your paragraph should have enough supporting sentences to develop the idea stated in your topic sentence. In this lesson, you’ll learn about writing coherent paragraphs. You can find the presentation in the video here.
The easiest way to achieve coherence is to stress the main idea by keeping the same subject in every sentence, whenever this is possible. In the paragraph about bathing a dog, the key noun of each sentence could be “dog”. You are less likely to introduce unrelated ideas if you are not changing the key nouns and all pronouns that refer to it. You also can avoid sounding too repetitive by using synonymous words or expressions.
There is no fixed rule about how often to repeat key nouns or when to substitute pronouns. You should repeat a key noun instead of using a pronoun when the meaning is not clear.
Another technique to write a coherent paragraph is to be consistent. The point of view is the perspective from which a sentence or paragraph is written. A consistent point of view means you should use the same person or personal pronoun throughout a sentence or paragraph.
Avoid confusing shifts from one point of view to another. Don’t change from “you” to “he” or “she” which is a change of person or from “he” to “they”, a change of number.
Let’s see an example of a confusing shift:
Many university students say you feel overwhelmed before your exam.
To correct this mistake, use the same personal pronoun throughout the sentence:
Many university students say they feel overwhelmed before their exams.
Let’s see an example of an incorrect pronoun:
A good student always submits their assignment on time.
To correct this mistake, use a third person singular pronoun or use the plural noun:
A good student always submits his or her assignment on time. OR Good students always submit their assignments on time.
To write coherent paragraphs,
Complete the task below to check your understanding of today’s lesson.
In the paragraph below, taken from How to Speak And Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin, some incoherences have been added. Select all that apply.
There are upwards of 200,000 words in the recent editions of the large dictionaries, but the one-hundredth part of this number will suffice for all everyone wants. Of course, you may think not, and students may not be content to call things by their common names; you may be ambitious to show superiority over others and display your learning or, rather, your pedantry and lack of learning. For instance, you may not have wanted to call a spade a spade. You may prefer to call it a “spatulous device for abrading the surface of the soil.” Better, however, to stick to the old familiar, simple name that your grandfather called it. It will stand the test of time, and old friends are always good friends. To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words.
