Coherence
and
Cohesion
in
Research
Articles
January 21, 2016
http://economics.captive-mantis.net
“Day 127/365: Research” by Flickr user Wendy
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Outcomes
By the time you’ve finished this workshop you’ll be
able to
 Begin developing research introductions by
leveraging John Swales’s Create a Research
Space (CARS) framework.
 Attend to paragraph coherence by applying
the given/new information structure.
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Coherence and Cohesion
Coherence means the connection of ideas at the
idea level. Basically, coherence refers to the
“rhetorical” aspects of your writing, which include
developing and supporting your argument (e.g.
thesis statement development), synthesizing and
integrating readings, organizing and clarifying
ideas.
Cohesion means the connection of ideas at the
sentence level The cohesion of writing focuses on
the “grammatical” aspects of writing.
Min, Y.-K. (n.d.). ESL: Coherence and Cohesion - ESL Student Handbook - For Students - Writing and Communication Center UW Bothell. Retrieved January 17, 2016, from http://www.bothell.washington.edu/wacc/for-students/eslhandbook/coherence
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Coherence
“mind the gap” by Flickr user Pawel Loj
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Genre
 Social action/speech event that has
communicative goal shared by the members of
a particular discourse community.
 Term for grouping texts together, representing
how writers typically use language to respond
to recurring situations.
Hyland K. 2004. Genre and Second Language Writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press/ELT.
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Genre Analysis
Examining a number of samples of particular
genres to analyze their similarities and differences
in terms of their purposes, macrostructure, and
language choice.
Rhina O. 15:01:22 UTC. Genre Analysis. [accessed 2014 Sep 21]. http://www.slideshare.net/TeacherRhina/genreanalysis-5184230
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Create a Research Space
(CARS)
 John Swales examined the
introductions to 48 articles in the
natural and social sciences.
 Sequence of three rhetorical
moves through which a writer
creates a research space for his or
her work.
Swales J. 1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University
Press.
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Create a Research Space
(CARS)
Blomström, Magnus, Robert E. Lipsey, and Mario Zejan. 1996. “Is
Fixed Investment the Key to Economic Growth?” The
Quarterly Journal of Economics 111 (1): 269–76.
Koohi‐Kamali, Feridoon. 2013. “Estimation of Equivalence Scales
Under Convertible Rationing.” Review of Income and Wealth
59 (1): 113–32. doi:10.1111/roiw.12008.
Solon, Gary. 1985. “The Minimum Wage and Teenage
Employment: A Reanalysis with Attention to Serial Correlation
and Seasonality.” The Journal of Human Resources 20 (2):
292–97. doi:10.2307/146014.
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Move1: Establishing a Territory
Topic Generalizations / Previous Research
***
The natural context of consumption rationing is a wartime economy, yet
little is known empirically about consumption in such an economy. In
particular, in order to estimate adult equivalence scales from a demand
function, or an Engel curve, for such an economy, one would first have to
establish whether a conditional function is appropriate.
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Move1: Establishing a Territory
Topic Generalizations / Previous Research
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Move 2: Establishing a Niche
Indicating a Gap
***
The available wartime estimates for such scales (e.g. Nicholson, 1949),
provide no justification for the employment of a conventional function. The
latter depends on whether rationing seriously restricts consumption, for
example when additional consumption cannot be secured through the
market, and if so, whether an Engel curve, or a demand function is
required. In addition, estimating a demand function requires data on price
variations, generally unavailable from a single cross-section survey.
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Move 2: Establishing a Niche
Indicating a Gap
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Move 3: Occupying the Niche
Outlining Purposes / Announcing Present Research
***
The present paper provides estimates of adult equivalence scales based
on a cross-section budget survey whose unique features, especially with
regard to price heterogeneity, provide answers to the above issues. . . . An
unusual feature of the main model, in the context of cross-section
household data, is its incorporation of differences in prices faced by
different households.
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Move 3: Occupying the Niche
Outlining Purposes / Announcing Present Research
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Thinking about Writing
Assisted by this worksheet, identify CARS moves in
the the following articles.
Douglas, Christopher, and Ana María Herrera. 2010. “Why
Are Gasoline Prices Sticky? A Test of Alternative Models of
Price Adjustment.” Journal of Applied Econometrics 25
(6): 903–28. doi:10.1002/jae.1115.
Fillat, José L., and Stefania Garetto. 2015. “Risk, Returns, and
Multinational Production.” The Quarterly Journal of
Economics 130 (4): 2027–73. doi:10.1093/qje/qjv031.
Student Sample 1
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Cohesion
“Ying und Yang 335/365” by Flickr user Dennis Skley
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Given-before-new principle
The linguistic principle that speakers and writers
tend to express known information (the "given")
before previously unknown information (the
"new") in their messages. Also known as the GivenNew Principle and the Information Flow Principle
(IFP).
Nordquist, R. (2015, February 19). The Given-Before-New Principle in Grammar. Retrieved January 20, 2016, from
http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/Given-Before-New-Principle.htm
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Information structure in
sentences
Given/Topic/Theme
New/Comment/Rheme
The properties of conductivity,
ductility, and stability
make gold the most useful
material on earth.
First, gold
is the most conductive materials
which have ever been used.
Today, a lot of electronic
machines
are used.
Because of the low voltage in
these machines,
gold is the only material that can
be used as a conductor.
Weissberg RC. 1984. Given and New: Paragraph Development Models from Scientific English. TESOL Quarterly 18:485–500.
[accessed 2014 Sep 17]
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Linear Progression
Weissberg RC. 1984. Given and New: Paragraph Development Models from Scientific English. TESOL Quarterly 18:485–500.
[accessed 2014 Sep 17]
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Constant Topic Progression
Weissberg RC. 1984. Given and New: Paragraph Development Models from Scientific English. TESOL Quarterly 18:485–500.
[accessed 2014 Sep 17]
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Adding given information to the topic
Weissberg RC. 1984. Given and New: Paragraph Development Models from Scientific English. TESOL Quarterly 18:485–500.
[accessed 2014 Sep 17]
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Redistributing information from comment to topic
Weissberg RC. 1984. Given and New: Paragraph Development Models from Scientific English. TESOL Quarterly 18:485–500.
[accessed 2014 Sep 17]
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More on Themes
 macro-Theme: introductory section in an essay
or analysis which predicts what the text will be
about.
 hyper-Theme: a clause or combination of
clauses that predicts the method of text’s
development. You might have heard this
concept called a “topic sentence.”
Martin, J. R. (1993). Live as a Noun: Arresting the Universe in Science and Humanities. In M. A. K. Halliday & J. R. Martin (Eds.),
Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power (pp. 221–267). London: The Falmer Press.
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Hyper-Theme Pattern
Topics of each sentence are individually different but can still be considered
"given" since they are all derived from the same overriding theme
Weissberg RC. 1984. Given and New: Paragraph Development Models from Scientific English. TESOL Quarterly 18:485–500.
[accessed 2014 Sep 17]
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Thinking about Writing
Explain how the following paragraph achieves cohesion. Mark up the
version in your handout as you think!
One risk in using pooled time series and cross-section data, is that the
cross-sectional differences among countries reflect permanent
characteristics of the countries that encourage or discourage both fixed
investment and economic growth. Examples of such characteristics might
be the efficiency of government, the degree of corruption, the level of
violence, or the attitude of governments and populations toward
individual achievement or enterprise. Any such relationship could give a
false impression that high fixed capital formation resulted in high growth,
or vice versa. To eliminate any such bias, we include country dummies.
The effect is to remove cross-sectional differences among countries,
leaving only time-series variations to be explained. The main result persists
when intercountry differences are eliminated: growth seems to precede
capital formation.
Blomström, M., Lipsey, R. E., & Zejan, M. (1996). Is Fixed Investment the Key to Economic Growth? The Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 111(1), 269–276.
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Thinking about Writing
Here is a paragraph from a student's essay in economics.
However, the paragraph beginning has been omitted. Read
the paragraph carefully, and then write a suitable beginning
to the paragraph.
Learning Centre - The University of Sydney. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20, 2016, from
http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/learning_centre/index
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Thinking about Writing
The following text is a piece of student writing commenting on the
political system of Pakistan. Read the sentences thoroughly to
determine which one is the hyper-Theme and then which order the
remaining sentences should be in.
a) Another reason has been the lack of strong political parties.
b) While it is necessary to recognize that these are not the only factors
determining the failure of a democratic system they stand as the
most prominent reasons.
c) The first is that none of the leaders of the government, which has
been based on a Western democratic constitutional system, has
attempted to rule the country in a democratic way.
d) It can be argued that a Western political system has failed in
Pakistan for two major reasons.
e) Instead they have instituted autocratic rule.
f) General Mirza (1980:19) claims that "Pakistan's illiterate people are
neither interested nor competent in politics”.
g) As a result, when constitutional crises have arisen there has not
been sufficient popular support behind any one party to overcome
the situation.
Learning Centre - The University of Sydney. (n.d.). Retrieved January 20, 2016, from http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/learning_centre/index
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