UNITY AND

COHERENCE
Paula Andrea Barrero.
Damaris Johana Mejia.

Unit
y

Unity means that a

paragraph discusses
one and only one
main idea from
beginning to end.

One of the most controversial issues is the extent

to which grammar teaching should be made
explicit, and this is due in part to thecomplex
relationship between teaching and learning: what is
taught does not necessarily translate into what is
learnt. Explicit knowledgerefers to rules learners
have learned and can verbalise, whereas implicit
knowledge is unconscious and can be accessed
effortlessly for communication. The crux of
contention rests on whether it is formal and
systematic attention to individual linguistic features
which results in learning, or whether targetlanguage exposure is sufficient.Gascoigne (2002:
38) remarks that "There are as many small-scale
studies that have found results supporting the
implicit view of grammar instruction as there are
those endorsing the superiority of explicit grammar
instruction".

COHERENCE
For coherence in writing, the sentences
must hold together; that is, the
movement from one sentence to the
next must be logical and smooth.

There are four ways to achieve

coherence:
1.Repeart key nouns.
2.Use consistent pronouns
3.Use transition signals to link ideas.
4.Arrange your ideas in logical order.

REPETITION OF KEY NOUNS

The easiest to achieve coherence is to
repeat key nouns frequently in your
paragraph.

KEY NOUN
SUBTITUTES
If you do not wish to
repeat a key noun again
and again, you can use
synonyms or expressions
with the same meaning .

CONSISTENT
When you use pronouns,make sure that
PRONOUNS
you use the same person and number
throughout your paragraph.

TRANSITIO
N SIGNALS
Transition signals give
a paragraph
coherence because
they guide your reader
from one idea to the
next.

COORDINATORS
This group includes the seven coordinating conjunction
and the five correlative conjunctions.
When they connect two independent clauses, use a
comma.

When they connect two words or phrases, do not

use a comma.

SUBORDINATORS
A subordinator is the first word in a
dependent clause. A dependent clause is
always connected to an independet clause
to make a sentence. Put a comma after a
dependent clause but not in front of one.

DO NOT OVERUSE TRANSITION

SIGNALS
Too many transition signals can be
distracting rather than helpful. There is no
rule about how many to use in one
paragraph. Use them only when they will
help your reader follow your ideas.

LOGICAL ORDER
Chronological order: is
order by time-a sequence of
events or steps in a process.
In logical division of
ideas, a topic is divided into
parts, and each part is
discussed separately.
In a comparison/contrast
paragraph, the similarities
and/or differences between
two or more items are
discussed.

IMPORTANT POINTS:
1.Every good paragraph has both unity and
coherence.
2.You achieve unity by
Discussing only one idea in a paragraph.
Always staying on the topic in your
supporting sentences.
3. You achieve coherence by
Repeating key nouns
Using consistent pronouns
Using transition signals
Arranging your ideas in some kind of logical order.
4. There are different types od transition signals. Each
type is punctuated differently.