Grammar in EAP
Cohesion: Introduction
It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how various parts of the text are connected. These connections can be made explicit grammatically and lexically by the use of different reference words. Every text has a structure. It is not just a random collection of sentences. The parts that make up the text are related in a meaningful way to each other. In order to make these relationships in the text clear, it is necessary to show how the sentences are related. Words like “it”, “this”, “that”, “here”, “there” etc. refer to other parts of the text. You need to understand how to use these connections or links.
There are four main types of links used in academic texts: reference, ellipsis and substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion (Halliday and Hasan, 1976).
Cohesion: Grammar: Cohesion
Flow of information in paragraphs
In order for a text to be easy to read, the information in it must flow easily from one sentence to the next. To do this it is important to structure your information clearly.
See: Grammar: Flow
It is also important to signal exactly what you want to say by the use of signalling words.
Cohesion: Signalling
It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how various parts of the text are connected. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signalling words.
See: Grammar: Signalling
Cleft-Sentences
Cleft-sentences can also help with information flow by linking clauses:
For centuries, London had been growing as a commercial port of world importance. But it was in the north of England that industrial power brought new prosperity to the country.
