1 Possible cohesive features are identified in brackets:

The earth draws us all toward it. Inside its [pronoun reference] round fruits, called bolls, are masses of white fibres. But [conjunct] what kind of environment is this [pronoun reference]? I prefer other people’s [ellipsis]. The Canal and River Trust is launching a campaign this week which urges people to feed ducks with frozen peas and sweetcorn instead [conjunct]. Now [conjunct], why should it [pronoun reference] do so [clause substitution]? Only people who can’t get in do that [clause substitution].

In other words, the text is superficially cohesive, but this does not mean that it makes sense: clearly it does not. It is not coherent. Coherence is a less tangible quality than cohesion, and less easily defined or accounted for. It is perhaps a ‘feeling’ that the reader (or listener) has: what may be coherent for one may be incoherent for another. Nevertheless, the task of making sense of a text is made easier if the text is a recognisable text type (or ‘genre’) and conforms to the conventions of this genre. It also helps if the content of the text is organised in such a way as to make its meaning easily recoverable. The order in which information is presented in a text is an important factor in determining how coherent it is likely to be to the reader, and is the focus of a number of the following tasks.

2 a and b The split texts – and their logical relations – are:

– 1 and f: The logical relation between the first and the second sentence is a contrastive one, e.g. ‘However….’

– 2 and h: The logical relation is causal: e.g. ‘This is because …’

– 3 and a: This is a causal relation: e.g. ‘So …’

– 4 and g: This is a temporal relation: e.g. ‘Then …’

– 5 and d: This is a causal relation: e.g. ‘Therefore …’

– 6 and b: Temporal: e.g. ‘Then …’

– 7 and c: Additive: e.g. ‘Also …’

– 8 and e: Contrastive: e.g. ‘But …’

c This exercise demonstrates that, to be coherent, a text relies less on explicit cohesive linkers than on the logical juxtaposition of its parts. A text also ‘makes sense’ because we recognise what kind of text it is (its ‘genre’) and its communicative purpose (see the next task).