Are you having trouble with writing a text that is easy to read and has a nice flow? Chances are that you can improve clarity and coherence in your writing. This article discusses 5 simple strategies to improve coherence, which will help you to write more smoothly.

What is coherence in writing?

Coherence refers to the logical connections that exist between sentences and paragraphs. Good coherence makes a piece of writing easy to read and understand. It results in a clear flow of ideas, with each sentence or paragraph leading smoothly to the next.

Five strategies to improve coherence in writing

1. Use old-to-new information structure

A great way to create coherence in your writing is to connect sentences using the old-to-new information structure. With this technique, you place old information in the first part of the sentence and new information in the second part of the sentence. Let’s look at an example, where new information is in italics, and old information is in bold.

Tree and plant use their roots to absorb water, minerals, and nutrients. These raw materials flow to plant cells containing chlorophyll. Chlorophyll uses sunlight energy to transform carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbon-based compounds such as glucose. These compounds serve as an important energy source for animals that eat those plants.

In the example above, the sentences are clearly connected because the information that they share is placed close to each other. Each sentence picks up from the idea at the end of the previous sentence.

2. Use the same words

Students sometimes try to make their text look more interesting by using different words for the same thing. However, this approach can significantly reduce the coherence of your text, because the reader has to consciously connect the words that have the same meaning. It is therefore advised to always use the same word or term for the same thing in your entire thesis. Let’s look at an example.

Global warming is causing rising temperatures around the globe. This increased heat causes glaciers and ice caps to defrost. This increased melting leads to rising sea levels, which increases the chance of floods in low-lying areas. The coastal communities around the world are therefore becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding and other related hazards.

In these three sentences, different terms are used for the same thing. Increased heat is used in place of rising temperatures, defrost is used in place of melting, and so on. Although most people would understand this text, it requires mental effort to connect the words that have the same meaning. This additional effort can make a text incoherent and slow to read. When the same terms are used each time, the text becomes more digestible.

Global warming is causing rising temperatures around the globe. These rising temperatures cause glaciers and ice caps to melt. This increased melting leads to rising sea levels, which increases the chance of floods in coastal areas. The coastal areas around the world are therefore becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding and other related hazards.

You may have noticed that this text uses an old-new information structure. With this structure, it helps that the same terms are used each time because the sentences are easily connected to each other.

3. Make sentences parallel

In high school, you might have learned that you should vary the structure of your sentences, to make your writing more interesting. This approach can actually make your text difficult to read because the reader has to find the structure of each new sentence. When you keep the structure of sentences the same, it improves coherence and can help the reader to understand your text better. Let’s look at an example.

The temperature at location A was lower during the night than during the day, whereas during the day there were stronger winds than during the night. For location B, however, the wind speed during the night was lower than during the day, while it was hotter in the daytime than in the nighttime.

The text has a varying sentence structure: the information is placed in a different order in each of the sentences. It may seem that it makes the text more interesting, but it is very difficult for the reader to process the information. Now let’s rewrite the text using a parallel structure.

For location A, the temperature was lower during the night than during the day, whereas wind speed was higher during the night than during the day. For location B, however, the temperature was higher during the night than during the day, whereas wind speed was lower during the night than during the day.

Each sentence has the same order of information, and it is much easier to process the information. Your brain does not have to find the structure of the sentence every time, because you already understand how the sentences are built after reading the first one.

4. Improve subjects and verbs

The subject and verb are very important elements of a sentence. If you want to rewrite a sentence that does not flow well, try to identify the subject and verb first. You can do this by asking yourself “who is doing what?” Then, use the following simple rules to improve your writing.

Use concrete subjects and verbs

When the subject or verb of a sentence is very abstract, it is difficult to create a mental image of it. It is therefore better to use very concrete subjects and verbs that the reader can easily relate to. For example:

The movement in liquid medium of bacteria is accomplished by their micro flagella.

The subject of this sentence is “the movement in liquid medium” and the verb is “is (accomplished)”. These are not very concrete, because it is quite difficult to create a mental picture. Better would be:

Bacteria move in liquid medium using their micro flagella.

The subject is now “Bacteria”, and the verb is “move”, which are both much more concrete. This sentence is therefore much easier to read and process.

Keep subject and verb close together

Another trick to make a sentence easier to read is to keep the subject and verb close together. If they are far apart, the sentence can be difficult to understand. Consider the following example.

The type of feed that was given to the animals was decided upon by the researchers.

The subject is “type of feed” and the verb is “was decided upon”. In this sentence, there are 6 words between the subject and the verb. If we rewrite the sentence, it becomes much easier to read. Note that I also change the verb and subject to make them more concrete.

The researchers decided what type of feed was given to the animals.

The subject is now “the researchers” and the verb follows directly after that, namely “decided”.

Avoid heavy use of nouns derived from verbs

Some nouns are derived from a verb. For example, graduation is derived from graduate, and motion is derived from the verb move. You can often recognize derived nouns because they tend to end with -ion or -ing. Although derived nouns can be useful at times, they are often unnecessary and can make a sentence too complex. Instead, it is better to use the verb from which the noun was derived. Let’s look at an example.

Our lack of data prevented confirmation of a relationship between global warming and heat stress.

The noun “lack” is derived from the verb “to lack”, and “evaluation” is derived from “to evaluate”. Let’s see if we can rewrite it by using the original verbs.

Because we lacked data, we could not confirm a relationship between global warming and heat stress.

5. Be careful when using pronouns

Pronouns are words that are used in place of a noun, to avoid the noun having to be repeated every time. Examples are this, that, these, they, etc. Pronouns are very common, but they can harm the coherence in writing. In the following example, the pronoun is written in bold.

Our results showed that the amount of sugar in product A was 14%, while the amount of sugar in product B was only 6%. This suggests that product A would taste sweeter than product B.

At first sight, there may be nothing wrong with the sentence above. However, the reader has to guess that the pronoun this refers to the difference between the two products, and not (for example) the amount of sugar that was found in product B. It would be better to write:

Our results showed that the amount of sugar in product A was 14%, while the amount of sugar in product B was only 6%. This difference suggests that product A would taste sweeter than product B.

This small change makes sure that the reader does not have to guess what this refers to. In this example, omitting the word difference might not be very problematic, but in some cases, it can cause some serious confusion. For example:

When I banged my arm into the glass door, I broke it.

What does it refer to here? To the arm or to the glass door? There is no way of knowing based on this sentence. One possible solution is to rewrite it as follows.

I broke my arm when I banged it into the glass door.

In this sentence, it must refer to the arm, because the glass door is mentioned later.

Coherence in writing: Conclusion

It can be difficult to write a text that has a nice flow and is coherent. With some simple techniques, you can improve coherence in writing and make your thesis more digestible. It is important to think about the structure of your sentences and paragraphs and choose clarity over complexity.