WEBVTT 00:00.870 --> 00:06.780 Hello there in this lecture we are going to discuss the methods to improve paragraph coherence. 00:06.780 --> 00:13.950 Many students have asked me to give them some idea of what this idea of what this concept of coherence 00:13.950 --> 00:15.230 means. 00:15.540 --> 00:19.250 You see it in the red writing rubrics you've seen it all over the Internet. 00:19.260 --> 00:22.750 When they're telling you about good paragraphs use coherence. 00:22.960 --> 00:29.970 But many of you don't really understand how to implement coherence. 00:29.970 --> 00:37.920 So in this short lecture I'm going to hopefully give you some examples of how you can include coherence 00:37.980 --> 00:39.710 in your writing. 00:39.780 --> 00:46.800 Now I will also say that this advice that I'm giving you for including coherence in your writing also 00:46.800 --> 00:50.370 works well for including coherence in your speaking. 00:50.610 --> 00:57.430 So remember for the most part was good for writing is also good for speaking. 00:57.840 --> 00:58.280 OK. 00:58.320 --> 01:05.310 So let's move on and let's find out how we can get better with including coherence. 01:05.370 --> 01:14.670 This is a no this is not of a writing class but I just thought that it was so important to include coherence 01:14.670 --> 01:18.680 because many students don't know how to implement it properly. 01:22.240 --> 01:22.580 All right. 01:22.630 --> 01:27.390 So let's have a look and see exactly what we need to do. 01:27.910 --> 01:35.080 Well when we talk about coherence there are when you when you look over the Internet or you look at 01:35.490 --> 01:39.710 a year from different sources most of the time they give you about three or four. 01:39.820 --> 01:44.950 Actually there are about seven different ways to include coherence. 01:44.950 --> 01:51.100 And so I'm going to go over all seven of these we're dealing with repeating key words pronoun reference 01:51.100 --> 02:02.650 parallelism transition words verb tense synonyms and also sequencing and using all of these are just 02:02.650 --> 02:10.480 a few of these is going to greatly impress the greater when it comes to judging you on the concept of 02:10.480 --> 02:11.080 coherence. 02:11.080 --> 02:13.750 Did you use it or not. 02:13.750 --> 02:19.430 Well our first two concepts deal with repeating a key phrase and also pronoun reference. 02:20.170 --> 02:26.680 Look at our paragraph here for repeating a key phrase for Donald Trump without power a politician is 02:26.680 --> 02:27.330 nothing. 02:27.520 --> 02:29.670 A politician must have the power to be heard. 02:29.670 --> 02:35.360 The power to decide and equally important the power to shape events according to Trump. 02:35.530 --> 02:38.450 A politician without power is an empty suit. 02:38.470 --> 02:44.140 Every politician should exude power in every move and nonverbal gesture if he wants to be powerfully 02:44.140 --> 02:45.430 respected. 02:45.430 --> 02:48.720 Now there is good coherence here. 02:48.730 --> 02:58.570 Right because without a question you know this paragraph is about politicians needing power is clear 02:58.970 --> 02:59.310 right. 02:59.320 --> 03:01.970 That's an example of coherence. 03:02.110 --> 03:09.660 Now I think if you are using some synonyms for the word power that can make it even better because it's 03:09.670 --> 03:12.710 showing also some creativity to your writing. 03:12.910 --> 03:20.760 But just as a basic tenet repeating a key phrase is a good way to show cohesion. 03:21.130 --> 03:28.200 The pronoun reference pronoun reference is also a very good way to show cohesion. 03:28.210 --> 03:32.970 Now I am in this paragraph I am exaggerating it a little bit. 03:33.070 --> 03:38.470 I probably wouldn't use this many pronouns but I'm just exaggerating it a little bit to give you an 03:38.470 --> 03:42.440 idea of what it means to use pronouns. 03:42.460 --> 03:46.990 Chinese people can be very soft spoken but don't let that give you the wrong idea of their intensity 03:46.990 --> 03:48.640 and determination. 03:48.640 --> 03:53.850 When the time comes they can be pretty tough and they will let you know with clarity what they mean. 03:53.860 --> 03:56.850 Chinese culture spread all over the world and prehistory. 03:57.000 --> 04:02.050 It is because these soft spoken people learn how to get their point across without saying it loudly 04:02.680 --> 04:03.400 right. 04:03.700 --> 04:09.930 So there we have a really good use of pronouns to build cohesion. 04:09.940 --> 04:12.360 Now let's take a look at our next two concepts. 04:12.370 --> 04:19.820 Parallelism and transition language first parallelism with the Republican Party in 2017. 04:20.020 --> 04:25.000 The Dems are with the Republican victory in 2017. 04:25.000 --> 04:32.090 The Democratic party felt all that Obama had work for was to be lost their voters had deserted them. 04:32.170 --> 04:35.260 Their policies were being dismissed and their credibility. 04:35.260 --> 04:37.830 Speaking for the people have been lost. 04:37.990 --> 04:39.060 You see that sentence. 04:39.130 --> 04:41.260 That's parallelism. 04:41.380 --> 04:46.510 The more they search for answers and the more they adjust to their view point of view the less confident 04:46.510 --> 04:48.990 the average American became and their ability to govern. 04:49.000 --> 04:53.380 That sentence also has parallelism right there. 04:53.410 --> 04:59.650 These are the kind of things you can do that will impress the greater when it comes to evaluating or 04:59.650 --> 05:02.910 writing on the concept of coherence. 05:02.920 --> 05:09.520 Transition language although it is now nearly two years since Barack Obama left office his legacy is 05:09.520 --> 05:12.120 still debated in American politics. 05:12.300 --> 05:17.680 Or Donald Trump and the him and the Republican Party have not been in power since 2008. 05:17.680 --> 05:23.460 Many of their policies still live on despite Obama's efforts to change them. 05:23.470 --> 05:26.810 Indeed some people see Obama as having failed in his legacy. 05:26.810 --> 05:33.210 Since Now Trump can easily wipe out any gains Obama made with the stroke of a pen right. 05:34.980 --> 05:44.030 So with parallelism it's important because parallelism helps you to bind your text together like glue. 05:44.500 --> 05:49.110 Remember also a transition words you don't really want to necessarily overdo it. 05:49.470 --> 05:49.800 Right. 05:49.800 --> 05:55.530 And also a transition words don't use the same words paragraph after paragraph sentence after sentence 05:55.530 --> 05:56.700 variety. 05:56.850 --> 05:57.150 Right. 05:57.150 --> 06:00.260 Range Range Range Range is very very important. 06:03.380 --> 06:06.120 Find two concepts. 06:06.410 --> 06:11.450 Our two concepts that we're going to talk about together like this I guess there are a couple of more 06:11.450 --> 06:15.250 I'm going to mention actually synonyms. 06:15.530 --> 06:17.370 Synonyms are very very important. 06:17.390 --> 06:24.890 It's a way of repeating key phrases but doing it creatively and I think that's even more highly value 06:25.640 --> 06:26.690 highly valued. 06:28.580 --> 06:34.760 Teenagers face an enormous amount of peer pressure from friends and schoolmates as a result. 06:34.790 --> 06:40.780 Many young adults are exhibiting signs of severe stress or depression at an early age. 06:40.820 --> 06:46.560 These adolescents need professional help to overcome their problems when this help is given. 06:46.620 --> 06:52.000 Our high school age youngsters will feel less Wolf. 06:52.010 --> 06:56.600 They will feel less peer pressure ok enough to change that sentence grammatically. 06:56.660 --> 07:02.960 That last sentence everybody the last sentence should read when there's help is given when this help 07:02.960 --> 07:03.630 is given. 07:03.650 --> 07:05.290 It should be a comma there. 07:05.600 --> 07:06.260 And now I have to go. 07:06.260 --> 07:10.440 I have to go back and edit that when this help is given. 07:10.450 --> 07:15.720 Karma are a high school age youngsters will feel less peer pressure. 07:15.770 --> 07:17.980 OK that's all that final sentence should read. 07:17.990 --> 07:22.940 Everybody I'm speaking to you like we're in a classroom but this doesn't have actually what I would 07:22.940 --> 07:25.930 do in the classroom was just correct myself right then. 07:26.780 --> 07:32.340 So again that final sentence sentence is when this help was given comma. 07:32.870 --> 07:36.730 Our high school age youngsters will feel less peer pressure. 07:36.740 --> 07:38.120 They should be crossed out. 07:38.210 --> 07:38.700 All right. 07:38.930 --> 07:41.870 But that's an example of using synonyms. 07:43.180 --> 07:48.590 Next when it comes to sequencing information is information from old to new. 07:48.640 --> 07:54.130 That just means that the old or unknown information is placed at the beginning and the new or unknown 07:54.130 --> 07:56.280 information is placed at the end of a sentence. 07:56.290 --> 07:56.970 Right. 07:57.220 --> 07:59.390 That's proper sequencing. 07:59.830 --> 08:05.050 And also in terms of sequencing things go from general to specific. 08:05.090 --> 08:09.790 All right in a paragraph the general idea goes before this specific idea. 08:09.790 --> 08:14.240 That's also proper coherence and proper cohesion. 08:15.970 --> 08:24.110 Which is the same thing cohesion coherence of verb tenses should not be incorrectly used as you say 08:24.110 --> 08:27.910 in this paragraph here as you can see in the first sentence. 08:28.020 --> 08:33.030 We're using the past tense and then in the very next sentence or using the present tense you wouldn't 08:33.030 --> 08:36.980 believe how many how many times I see this in essays. 08:37.010 --> 08:38.680 It is amazing. 08:38.970 --> 08:44.370 It really is amazing how many times I see this in essays where people are just mixing up their tenses 08:44.370 --> 08:49.630 in one paragraph and it's difficult for me as is a challenge you have to be aware of it. 08:49.640 --> 08:51.480 I've made that mistake before. 08:51.480 --> 08:53.820 So I mean none of us are perfect. 08:54.030 --> 09:00.030 But this is just something you want to be aware of in terms of if you want to get a high grade in terms 09:00.030 --> 09:07.110 of coherence right this is what that paragraph will look like as you see now. 09:07.140 --> 09:09.180 Everything is in the past tense. 09:09.390 --> 09:15.710 So now we have really good coherence here point of view is very important. 09:15.810 --> 09:22.920 If you look at this paragraph you have to keep the point of view of the same person throughout the whole 09:22.920 --> 09:23.580 paragraph. 09:23.640 --> 09:25.050 Very very helpful. 09:25.170 --> 09:30.780 If you look at this paragraph the point of view is changing from the first sentence to the second sentence 09:30.780 --> 09:34.920 and you don't want to do that. 09:35.240 --> 09:40.350 Here is a very good example of weak and strong coherence. 09:40.490 --> 09:45.280 The first paragraph says we coherence is really not. 09:45.470 --> 09:47.440 Is this a ok paragraph. 09:47.450 --> 09:52.350 I look at it is it's ok paragraph but it doesn't have strong coherence. 09:52.360 --> 09:57.930 It doesn't have strong coherence in language and in the next paragraph is even better. 09:57.930 --> 09:58.450 Right. 09:58.460 --> 10:04.280 It has really strong coherence and I've underlined the language and you see some of the key language 10:04.580 --> 10:06.470 phrases repeated now. 10:07.160 --> 10:10.070 That gives stronger coherence. 10:10.280 --> 10:10.720 Right. 10:10.730 --> 10:14.690 So maybe I should have called it weaker coherence and stronger coherence. 10:14.850 --> 10:22.030 But that first paragraph is is good but the next paragraph the paragraph below is even better much better 10:22.940 --> 10:27.950 because of the coherence language built into that paragraph. 10:27.960 --> 10:28.280 Right. 10:28.310 --> 10:39.290 So just remember that coherence is something that really allows a paragraph in the essay to flow smoothly 10:40.100 --> 10:43.640 to build one on top of the other right. 10:43.850 --> 10:47.680 Coherence is like a scaffold when you're making a building up paragraphs. 10:47.680 --> 10:54.460 You have a flow from beginning to end and that's done with very good coherence. 10:54.480 --> 10:54.820 All right. 10:54.830 --> 10:56.080 Good luck everybody. 10:56.090 --> 11:01.050 I wish you well and if you have any questions please let me know. 11:01.550 --> 11:02.000 Thank you.