ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English Language => Topic started by: ataraxia on November 08, 2011, 04:26:27 pm

Title: Coherence and Cohesion
Post by: ataraxia on November 08, 2011, 04:26:27 pm

Hello, could anyone clear up the difference between coherence and cohesion in written texts? I'm a little confused and feel like there's a lot of overlap between the two yet don't know how to distinguish them.

Title: Re: Coherence and Cohesion
Post by: helenv on November 08, 2011, 07:12:32 pm

Coherence: understanding the text
Cohesion: how well the text sticks together

Title: Re: Coherence and Cohesion
Post by: greenbeans on November 09, 2011, 10:09:25 pm

Quote from: helenv on November 08, 2011, 07:12:32 pm

Coherence: understanding the text
Cohesion: how well the text sticks together

yeah that's exactly right.
for example, features of coherence might be how paragraphing and subheadings aid the reader's understanding of the text, or the prior knowledge and social inference they bring to the fore helps them to be able to properly understand. cohesion is how the text is stuck together, like how substitution, repetition, references (cataphoric, anaphoric and deictics) and collocation is used for the text as a whole to be more cohesive :)