Wow! Two goals in injury time to win the Premiership! I’m not usually a Manchester City fan but I am today after the most exciting day in football I can remember!
And then I went and marked some examination papers. There were some really good ones, and some not so good! It’s not always easy to say what makes one essay better than another but one of the characteristics of a good essay that I always go on to my students about is cohesion. It’s not always easy to explain but I’ve found a webpage which makes a pretty good stab at it. Take a look at these examples of writing which focus on one aspect of cohesion:
Students can work alone and still be involved with interactive learning. This learning can happen when students decide what they want to learn.
While international students must meet minimum English language entry requirements, they are likely to need language advice and support in dealing with a new academic culture. This support is only useful if it can be made appropriate, convenient and ‘just-in-time’ for students.
In this paper I explore the idea that plagiarism can be understood as being embedded in Australian academic culture. Being culturally embedded explains why until recently plagiarism was rarely clearly discussed.
(Taken from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/learning/dae/writing/17wye_cohesion.html)
It’s good style: in each sentence I hope you can see how the writer introduces an issue, finishes a sentence, and then uses that issue to start the next sentence. This technique gives the text cohesion, so it hangs together well and is easy to read. Being cohesive is really important – for football teams too! Take a look at the page from La Trobe University on cohesion here.
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