The word “cohesion” loosely means “sticking together.” In English grammar, it is the logical linking of ideas and events within a sentence. There must be a flow between the clauses of a statement for writing to be well understood.

“I was late for school. My husband made breakfast.”

There is very little cohesion between these two statements. What do the clauses have to do with each other? Writing should be like a path and guide the reader from one idea to the next.

“Because I was late for school, my husband made breakfast.”

Various tools can help cohesion, called cohesive devices. These include adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, ellipsis and pronouns. Attention to punctuation will also help if writing feels choppy and there are many short, abrupt sentences. Swap periods out with commas and semi-colons to assist in the flow and take care to group similar phrases together. Use pronouns and ellipsis to avoid repetition or relating information that is already known to the reader.

“The cat was white and black. The cat liked to catch mice. Few rodents dared enter the cat’s home. When not chasing mice, the cat would look out the window. The cat also enjoyed watching cars.”

“The black and white cat liked to chase mice; few rodents dared enter her home. She also enjoyed watching cars, so she would look out the window when not chasing mice.”