XENA005 Academic Writing Modules: Cohesion and Coherence (2 cr)

Content

The cohesion and coherence module is intended for doctoral students.

Cohesion and coherence, which refer respectively to the connectivity of ideas between sentences and paragraphs and the way the whole text fits together, affect the clarity, communicative effectiveness and social acceptability of a manuscript. An additional stumbling block to achieving a publishable standard during the writing process is that problems in these areas often result in feedback from readers and editors in imprecise and variable terms (flow, readability, redundancy, etc.). Fortunately, these issues are easily demystified and understood as a number of interlocking phenomena that can be learned separately and then combined to achieve a text that can be fine-tuned for greater degrees of coherence and cohesion when needed. Elements of coherence and cohesion we may focus on developing in our research writing include the following:
- certain expected rhetorical moves in sections of an article
- creating paragraphs which follow a predictable structure
- using pronouns and noun phrases more deliberately to link sentences and paragraphs
- using conjunctions and transitional words and phrases carefully to highlight the logic and sequence of ideas
- using sentences, as appropriate to the field and journal, to preview and summarize the organization of a scientific text
- adding punctuation to accentuate the rhetorical flow of a text
- checking that lists in an academic text are parallel

Completion methods

Two scheduled meetings; full participation on both days is required for credits.

Assessment details

Compulsory and active participation. Successful completion of core assignments. Final grading is based on the applicable grading scale for the course.