What is cohesion?

Cohesion refers to the way we use vocabulary and grammatical structures to make connections between the ideas within a text. Cohesive devices are the words and strategies we use to make meaningful connections between the ideas in a text clear to the reader.

Cohesion is a vitally important device in academic writing because it promotes clarity. The sentences and paragraphs within an academic text should all be related to one another. It is the job of the writer to make these connections between sentences and paragraphs as clear as possible. One way to do this is through the effective use of cohesive devices.

Cohesion is achieved through different grammatical and lexical techniques that will be explained in the following pages.