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Coherence
- 1. Coherence and Cohesion Monique Henry UCTWriting Centre 2017
- 2. Your thesis needs to tell a story The Generic story A typical Science story A typical Humanities story • Certain departments and disciplines have their own writing criteria which they adhere to. So before you start in the writing process familiarise yourself with how your peers are writing in your field of study.
- 3. What is your story? Once upon a time ………. Then I thought ……………….. So I conducted some research ………… I found out that …………. Now we know that ………
- 4. How to tell your story so that your reader will follow you Create a ‘reading path’ for your audience. “Big picture” : reader knows where you’re going with this “Small moves” : easy to follow your logic, step by step.
- 5. “Big picture” coherence 1.Thesis sections perform clear functions.The reader anticipates what you will do in each chapter / section: • Abstract • Introduction • Literature review • Methods • Results • Discussion • Conclusion
- 6. 2. Provide chapter openings and closings (less for Honours, more for MA and PhD) Opening Closing
- 7. 3. Use headings and subheadings These help the reader to stay on track. Headings & subheadings should correspond with what you said you would do in the chapter (i.e. your opening / chapter intro).
- 8. “Small moves” coherence 1. ONE main idea per paragraph, with supporting evidence 2. Link sentences and paragraphs to show logical connections between them. How are you developing your argument? .
- 9. “Small moves” coherence Signal your “logic path” • Same issue, or moving to a new issue? (Check: did I tell the reader up front that I would be covering these separate issues?) • If still on the same issue, am I building up more information on the same point of view (adding depth, evidence, examples)? • Or am I moving to a contrasting perspective / counter- argument?
- 10. Theme 1 Research saying A Research saying B Conclusion Theme 2 Research saying X Research sayingY Conclusion Example : Partial structure of Literature Review
- 11. When the reader unravels your argument…are you able to neatly piece it back together again?
- 12. STATEYOUR RESEARCHTOPIC IN ONE SENTENCE
Editor's Notes
- The generic story Once upon a time we believed x. Then I thought, maybe this is not correct / not the whole truth? So I conducted some research. I found out that…... So now we know that …………. A typical Science story Once upon a time scientists believed that z was caused by x. Then I thought, maybe x does not cause z directly? So I conducted some research on what causes z. I found out that actually x causes y, and y causes z. So now we know that x does not directly cause z – it is actually y that causes z. A typical Humanities story Once upon a time we told ourselves a story about how event X happened. Then I thought….Y is also part of this story. We need to know more about the role that Y played. So I conducted some research about event X, looking at the involvement of Y. I found out that the old story underestimated the role played by Y. My evidence shows that Y was very important in event X. So now we have a better understanding about event X, and we can tell the story better.
- “Big picture” coherence Abstract tells the story in brief Introduction sets up the context – why do we need to study this issue? Literature review explains what we already know, and sets up your research questions: what don’t we know that you hope to find out? Methods tells what you did, why you did it that way Results and Discussion shows what you found and how this answers your questions. Conclusion sums up what it all means. What do we know now that we did not know before? What can we do with this knowledge? What next?
- Chapter introduction: Bit of background (e.g. What have your already covered / Where are we now in the dissertation?) What you’ll be doing in this chapter. Key points to be raised / arguments to be made Chapter closing: Recap key points, summarise their significance for your research. Explain how you will be going forward in the next chapter.