Cohesive Strategies

Cohesion refers to the flow of the text. Regardless of how well-organized a text is, how the author moves from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, and idea to idea can determine if your audience accepts or rejects your argument.

Cohesion is especially important in arguments based on reason, as the reasoning presented in the text is the author's--and the author must demonstrate his or her reasoning to the audience if he or she wants them to agree with the argument.

Writers create cohesion through a variety of methods, including implicit, conceptual links and explicit words and phrases that overtly signal the relationship between sentences, paragraphs, and ideas.

The exercises found here will focus on some of the words and phrases we use to create cohesion, specifically linking adverbials, coordinators, and subordinators.