Coherence

Natural Coherence

Make a coherent short story out of as many sentences from the list as possible. Do not rewrite the sentences for this purpose, but rather put down number one (1) against the sentences which will be the first sentence of the story, number two (2) against the next sentence, etc. Do not change anything in the form of the sentences or add anything to them: simply make a short story using all the sentences you can.

An unpleasant thing happened to X.

X played football on Thursday.

X adores music.

X's purse fell down on the road.

X joined the line for the fruit-stall.

In X's purse there was a purse.

X cannot see well in the dark.

At home X realized that he had lost his money.

X graduated from the university in 1975.

X walked in the street and stumbled.

"Learned" Coherence

The high jangling note __1__ the triangle put the __2__ Jody in motion. He __3__ only a little boy. __4__ years old, with hair __5__ dusty yellow grass and __6__ shy polite grey eyes, __7__ with a mouth that __8__ when he thought. The __9__ picked him up out __10__ sleep. It didn't occur __11__ him to disobey the __12__ note.

Coherence and Meaning

I bought a Ford. The car in which President Wilson rode was black. Black English has been widely discussed. The discussions between the miners and management ended last week. A week has seven days. Every day I feed my cat.

What is Coherence?

making connections between items
making meaningful connections between sentences
patterning information

Devices to Achieve Coherence

repetition of a key word: Jody, note, hair
use of personal pronouns: him, he
use of synonyms: Jody/boy
use of pointers: this, that, these, those
use of sentence patters: Some people ask why. I ask why not. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Are These Paragraphs/Sentences Coherent?

The Gaza "Strip" was created by 1948 Arab-Israeli war. It was the only bit of Palestine that the Egyptian army could salvage after fighting inef- fectively against the creation of the state of Israel.

In what order do the following sentences come?

The Egyptians subsequently used the region as a base for raids into Israel.
Those raids ceased after the 1956 war between Egypt and Israel, when Gamal Abdel Nasser agreed to the placement of a U.N. Emergency Force along the Gaza-Israeli border.

In what order do the following sentences come?

"Doctors know that the vast majority of lung diesease is related to cigarette smoking," one full page ad stated.
The dust began to fly when the North Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association Inc. placed advertisements in the state's leading news- papers blaming tobacco for the majority of lung diseases.
"This raises real questions about the fole of cotton dust as a causative factor."

The worst aviation accident in United States' history occurred May 25, 1979.
It resulted in air travellers' widespread fear of flying on the DC-10 air- craft.