By “making writing coherent”, we mean presenting ideas in a clear, consistent and logical way. To do this, we use cohesive devices (i.e. transitions or linking words, pronouns and conjunctions) to connect ideas and highlight their logical flow.

Use transitions or linking words

When you read the paragraph below, you will notice that it is just a listing of sentences and that there is no connection between the sentences. While you can understand the sentences, they do not connect to form a meaningful paragraph. In other words, the ideas in the paragraph are not cohesive. This results in the paragraph lacking coherence.

Paragraph without transitions

Inspiring teachers who are highly valued by their students have two outstanding characteristics. Inspiring teachers have excellent communication skills. They are able to arouse great interest in whatever they teach. They have enormous patience. They never appear threatening to their students.

Read the revised paragraph. You will notice that the underlined words connect the different ideas on inspiring teachers and also indicate the relationship between these ideas. Such writing is said to be both cohesive and coherent.

Paragraph with transitions