Coherence

1. Coherence Adapted from Susan Faivre & Katherine Wu (2010)

2. Coherence • Coherence – from “co here” meaning “stick or hold together” – makes reading easy at paragraph and essay level due to sentences holding together within the paragraph and the paragraphs holding together within the essay.

3. Perception The procedure is actually quite simple. First, you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. Next you operate the machines according to the instructions. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put in their appropriate places. Eventually, they will be used once more and the whole cycle will have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. retrieved from http://www.learner.org/channel/workshops/readingk2/swf/4.swf

4. Understanding • What makes the previous paragraph so difficult to understand? • What is it about? Any guesses? • What does it take for us to be understood? • Grammar? Mechanics? Spelling? Transitions?

5. Reader versus Writer • As senders, we craft messages in such a way that a receiver can understand what we are saying • Using KNO structure, we organize our ideas so we can explain new ideas when we first introduce them, and we refer back to ideas we’ve already explained; this provides our writing with coherence

6. Known, new, and old information Unlike many lower animals that use their noses to detect mates, predators, and prey, humans do not depend on their sense of smell for survival. Nevertheless, the sense of smell in humans is incredibly sensitive. • Generally, in one paragraph, there is only one piece of known information. This is the main idea of the paragraph, and should be represented by the topic sentence of that paragraph.

7. Known, new, and old information Unlike many lower animals that use their noses to detect mates, predators, and prey, humans do not depend on their sense of smell for survival. Nevertheless, the sense of smell in humans is incredibly sensitive. • Humans – known; the main idea of the paragraph; this is the one thing you can assume both you and your reader know already • Generally, in one paragraph, there is only one piece of known information. This is the main idea of the paragraph, and should be represented by the topic sentence of that paragraph.

8. Known, new, and old information Unlike many lower animals that use their noses to detect mates, predators, and prey, humans do not depend on their sense of smell for survival. Nevertheless, the sense of smell in humans is incredibly sensitive. • We can also expect new information, especially at the start of a paragraph. Even if you already know this, it is still new to this paragraph, as far as sender/receiver goes. • Human do not depend on their sense of smell for survival – new information introduced in this paragraph

9. Known, new, and old information Unlike many lower animals that use their noses to detect mates, predators, and prey, humans do not depend on their sense of smell for survival. Nevertheless, the sense of smell in humans is incredibly sensitive. • The old information is repeated information. Old information is not known information; known information is that which both sender/receiver started the paragraph already sharing knowledge of. • Old information is what you have introduced in that same paragraph that you refer back to later.

10. Known, new and old information Unlike many lower animals that use their noses to detect mates, predators, and prey, humans [subject = topic] do not depend on their sense of smell for survival [information about the topic – new]. Nevertheless, the sense of smell [subject = topic – repeated/old information] in humans is incredibly sensitive[information about the topic – new]. The pattern of your paragraph doesn’t necessarily have to be known-new-old, but this is a pretty good rule to follow.

11. Think of building! • To think of KNO in a slightly different way, think of building something, a building, a scaffold, something that requires a foundation and a structure • In order to build your paper, you need to give your reader the basic information they need to understand the broad idea of your paper. Then, once you’ve established that, you can build up. Only after you’ve established your ideas within the reader’s mind, however, can you build up, not before!

12. Word chains Markets coordinate individual decisions through price adjustments. To see how, think about your local market for hamburgers. Suppose that too few hamburgers are available so that people who want to buy hamburgers are not able to do so. To make the choices of buyers and sellers compatible, buyers must scale down their appetites or more hamburgers must be offered for sale (or both must happen). A rise in the price of hamburgers produces this outcome. A higher price encourages producers to offer more hamburgers for sale. It also curbs the appetite for hamburgers and changes some lunch plans. Open up the Word Chains exercise