FOCUS on GRAMMAR:

COHESION vs COHERENCE


Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence. Cohesion can be defined as the links that hold a text together and give it meaning. It is related to the broader concept of coherence.
There are two main types of cohesion: grammatical, referring to the structural content, and lexical, referring to the language content of the piece. 
A cohesive text is created in many different ways. There are five grammatical cohesive devices that create coherence in texts: reference, ellipsis, substitution, transitions and conjunctions.


REFERENCE: Here is an example of reference
Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain 
He stepped in puddle right up to his middle 
And never went there again
He     refers back to Doctor Foster 
There   refers back to Gloucester


ELLIPSIS: It happens when, after a more specific mention, words are omitted when the phrase needs to be repeated.
A simple conversational example:
 (A) Where are you going?
 (B) To town.
The full form of B's reply would be: "I am going to town".
A simple written example: The younger child was very outgoing, the older much more reserved.
The omitted words from the second clause are "child" and "was".


SUBSTITUTION: Substitution is replacement of one linguistic item by another. 
When we talk about replacement of one item by another, we mean replacement of one word/phrase with another word or phrase. It is used to avoid repetition of a particular item.
Example    My axe is too blunt. I must get a sharper one.
You know John already knows. I think everybody does.
A word is not omitted, as in ellipsis, but is substituted for another, more general word. 


CONJUNCTIONS and TRANSITIONS:
Conjunction sets up a relationship between two clauses. The most basic but least cohesive is the conjunction and. 
Transitions are conjunctions that add cohesion to text and include then, however, in fact, and consequently. Conjunctions can also be implicit and deduced from correctly interpreting the text.