Being cohesive:

Summary 

In this chapter you learned how to define a cohesive paragraph.

A cohesive paragraph is a group of sentences related to one another by a single idea or subject.

You also looked at 

 topic sentences, which

n        summarise the main idea and

n        help the reader predict what the chapter is about 

 supporting sentences, which

n        expand or develop the main idea

n        explain, eg identify causes, effects or reasons

n        provide specific details

 transitions, which

l        link sentences together

l        show the relationship between sentences

l        help the reader move quickly between ideas.

Everything you have learned in this chapter will help you to write cohesive paragraphs when you revise your documents.

Summary Exercises 

There are two summary exercises in this section.

In the first exercise, you're going to practise writing a cohesive paragraph.

SUMMARY EXERCISE 1 

Write a short paragraph about

The benefits of traveller's cheques when travelling overseas.

You will need to think of a topic sentence and two or three supporting sentences. You should also use some transitions. 

Look at the following suggested answer:

When travelling overseas, traveller's cheques are much safer than cash. First, traveller's cheques cannot be used by someone else. Second, they are protected against loss or theft.

The first topic sentence introduces the main idea: "Traveller's cheques are much safer than cash". The second and third sentences provide reasons that support this idea: "Traveller's cheques cannot be used by someone else." and "They are protected against loss or theft". The transitions show the sequence of the reasons.

SUMMARY EXERCISE 2: LETTER TO MR PERRY 

In Chapter 3 you drafted a letter to Mr Perry. Then you revised it for completeness.

In this exercise, you'll revise the letter to Mr Perry again. This time, you'll try to make the paragraphs cohesive.

To do this exercise, you'll need the letter which you revised in Chapter 3.

Check the cohesiveness of each paragraph.

If a paragraph is cohesive, it has

l        a short topic sentence which summarises the main idea

l        1-5 supporting sentences which are related to the main idea

l        transitions which link the sentences together.

If a paragraph doesn't have any of these, you need to revise it to make it cohesive.

You should write your revision on a piece of paper.

When you finish revising the paragraphs in your letter to Mr Perry, keep both the "first draft" and this "second revision". You'll need them in Chapters 5 - 6 and 8.

Well Done! 

You've now completed Chapter 4!

In this chapter you continued to look at the fourth stage of the Writing Process: Revise

So, now you know how to 

1) define a cohesive paragraph and 

2) write cohesive paragraphs which include

l        a topic sentence

l        supporting sentences and

l        transitions. 

In the next chapter, you'll continue to learn how to revise your documents. You'll find out how to revise your sentences so they are clear and concise.

See you there!

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