UNITY AND COHERENCE

Paula Andrea Barrero.Damaris Johana Mejia.

UnityUnity means that a

paragraph discusses one and only one main idea from beginning to end.

One of the most controversial issues is the extent to which grammar teaching should be made explicit, and this is due in part to the complex relationship between teaching and learning: what is taught does not necessarily translate into what is learnt. Explicit knowledge refers to rules learners have learned and can verbalise, whereas implicit knowledge is unconscious and can be accessed effortlessly for communication. The crux of contention rests on whether it is formal and systematic attention to individual linguistic features which results in learning, or whether target-language exposure is sufficient. Gascoigne (2002: 38) remarks that "There are as many small-scale studies that have found results supporting the implicit view of grammar instruction as there are those endorsing the superiority of explicit grammar instruction".

COHERENCE

For coherence in writing, the sentences must hold together; that is, the movement from one sentence to the next must be logical and smooth.

There are four ways to achieve coherence:

1.Repeart key nouns.2.Use consistent pronouns3.Use transition signals to link ideas.4.Arrange your ideas in logical order.

REPETITION OF KEY NOUNSThe easiest to achieve coherence is to repeat key nouns frequently in your paragraph.

KEY NOUN SUBTITUTES

If you do not wish to repeat a key noun again and again, you can use

synonyms or expressions with the same meaning .

CONSISTENT PRONOUNSWhen you use pronouns,make sure that you use the same person and number throughout your paragraph.

TRANSITION SIGNALS

Transition signals give a paragraph coherence because they guide your reader from one idea to the next.

COORDINATORSThis group includes the seven coordinating conjunction and the five correlative conjunctions.

When they connect two independent clauses, use a comma.

• When they connect two words or phrases, do not use a comma.

SUBORDINATORSA subordinator is the first word in a dependent clause. A dependent clause is always connected to an independet clause to make a sentence. Put a comma after a dependent clause but not in front of one.

DO NOT OVERUSE TRANSITION SIGNALSToo many transition signals can be distracting rather than helpful. There is no rule about how many to use in one paragraph. Use them only when they will help your reader follow your ideas.

LOGICAL ORDER• Chronological order: is

order by time-a sequence of events or steps in a process.

• In logical division of ideas, a topic is divided into

parts, and each part is discussed separately.

• In a comparison/contrast paragraph, the similarities and/or differences between

two or more items are discussed.

IMPORTANT POINTS:1.Every good paragraph has both unity and coherence.

2.You achieve unity by- Discussing only one idea in a paragraph.- Always staying on the topic in your supporting sentences.

3. You achieve coherence by- Repeating key nouns - Using consistent pronouns- Using transition signals- Arranging your ideas in some kind of logical order.4. There are different types od transition signals. Each type is punctuated differently.