Coherence is (1) arranging one’s ideas in some logical order; and (2) showing
the relationship between the ideas through the use of pronoun reference (P),
parallel structure (P), repetition of a key word or its synonym (R), and/or
transitional terms (or connectives) (T).
TECHNIQUES FOR ACHIEVING COHERENCE
Exercise 1: Pronoun Reference
The paragraph below is an excerpt from an essay on the questions
of girls playing on boys’ sports teams. Underline the nouns in the passage
and then draw an arrow to identify the nouns to which they refer.
Some women in sport leadership fear that integration will threaten the future
of female sport. They point out that the girls’ team might lose its best players
to the integrated team. But this is the inevitable trade-off when the individual
and group interests conflict. The best girl on the team might choose to leave
in order to concentrate on her schoolwork or her violin practice. In these
cases, she would not be criticized for jeopardizing the future of girls’ hockey.
As a player, she certainly has a stake in the future of girls’ sport, but she does
not have an obligation to stay.
Helen Lenskyi, “Integrated Sports: A Question of Fair Play?”
Exercise 2: Parallel Structure
Determine whether the sentences that follow contain errors in
parallel structure. Fix any problems that you find.
Example: The sentence “Monica brewed espresso, steamed milk, and told jokes
as she prepared Mike’s latte.” is written in parallel structure but the sentence
“Monica brewed expresso, then she steamed milk and was telling jokes as she
prepared Mike’s latte.” isn’t.
1. Celine looked behind the toilet, in the laundry basket, and checked under
the bed, but she could not find Squeeze, her nine-foot albino python.
2. For his first date with Malinda, Dennis bought not only a dozen roses but he
also purchased a box of chocolates.
3. Chelsea had to paddle past a school of jellyfish, kick a small sand shark in
the nose, and untangle seaweed from her surfboard before she reached her
favorite point break.
4. Spiders that bite, hissing snakes, and squealing rodents fill the aquariums in
Desmond’s basement.
5. Class with Dr. Rogers was a nightmare: the clock seemed stuck in place, the
air conditioner blew inadequate cool, and a fluorescent bulb buzzed overhead.
6. Ernie is too noisy as a seatmate. Crunching on apple slices, slurping hot
coffee, and the rings of his notebook snapped open and shut all contribute to
the cacophony.
7. Until the Weavers arrived home at 5 p.m., the clock ticked, the refrigerator
hummed, and the dog snoring in the otherwise quiet house.
8. Mark looked under the bed, in the hamper, and he even searched his
brother’s closet, but he could not find his favorite University of Florida T-shirt.
9. Natalia blinked her eyes, she wiped her glasses, and then squinted at the
screen, but she could not decipher the small text crammed onto the
presentation slide.
10. Pancakes dripping with syrup, coffee steaming in big mugs, and bacon
frying on the stove make breakfast at Grandma’s house a real treat.
Exercise 3: Repetition of a Key Word or its Synonym
Choose five words from those listed below. Use each word in a
sentence, followed by a related sentence in which you use a synonym.
Underline each word and its synonym.
Example: The Ocean Ranger catastrophe was the first of its kind in
Newfoundland. However, with the continuing search for oil off Canada’s east
coast, such a tragedy may become all too common.
Choose any five of the following words:
 Anger
 Rude
 Poverty
 Death
 Contradict
 Friendly
 Luck
 Destroy
 Villain
 Orator
 Struggle
 Water
Exercise 4: Transitional Devices
Read each of the following groups of sentences. Begin the second
sentence in each of the following pairs with a suitable transitional term.
1. A good education is important for a number of reasons. It broadens your
mind.
2. Dogs are better pets than cats. Dogs will warn of intruders.
3. Acid rain is doing great damage to the environment. Something will have
to be done about it, no matter what the cost to taxpayers and corporations.
4. The dropout rate is alarmingly high. Government has raised the age of
compulsory attendance from sixteen to seventeen.
5. It is easy to let TV be a babysitter. Parents must make every effort to resist
this temptation.
6. A journey begins with a single step. The road to recovery for alcoholics
begins with their first day without a drink.
Exercise 5: Identifying coherence (PPRT)
Identify TWO of the methods that have been used create
coherence within and between paragraphs in the following
selection. In your answer, be sure to give an example, explain the
method of coherence that is illustrated, and then tell why it is
effective.
Curiously, the development of lottery gambling has not caused
governments to be viewed with any special contempt. Indeed, the most
respectable citizens are involved, and they express great pride in their work.
As J. Gilbert Bowness, former chairman of the board of the Ontario Lottery
Corporation, said in an annual report, “The millions of dollars raised by
lotteries have provided a prosperity felt by every citizen in this province.”
Ontario lottery profits, like those in other parts of Canada, help construct
theatres and community centers and hospitals, and pay for fitness campaigns,
athletic programs and libraries.
But if these are good works, why can’t they be financed by taxes in the
usual way? The answer seems to be that governments lack the courage to tax
people to pay for them. Governments also feel a nagging desire to expand, and
yet sense voter resistance to bigger government. Lotteries give them a way to
expand their activities without raising taxes.
Lotteries are a “voluntary tax,” which is the term Mayor Jean Drapeau of
Montreal used when he brought the first government lottery to Canada in
1968. But whereas our tax system normally puts a heavier burden on the rich
than on the poor, lotteries do the opposite. As Canadian Consumer put it,
“Since the purchase price of a lottery ticket represents a much higher
proportion of your income if you’re poor, the voluntary tax rate is higher and
inequitable.”
Robert Fulford, “Government Lotteries: A Tax on the Poor”