Style Lesson 5
In Style Lesson 5, Williams helps his reader to understand the difference between coherence and cohesion. We judge sequences of sentences to be cohesive depending on how each sentence ends and the next begins. On the other hand, we judge a whole passage to be coherent depending on how all the sentences in a passage cumulatively begin. Sentences are cohesive when the last few words of one set up information that appears in the first few words of the next one. Williams teaches his reader how to diagnose and revise faulty sentences. First, begin sentences with information familiar to your reader. Readers remember words from a sentence they just read, and they bring previous knowledge to the sentence. When revision, a writer must trade off certain principles in order to make the passage cohesive. Give priority to helping readers gain a sense of cohesive flow from your writing.
Williams talks about coherence as being different from cohesion because it relates to a single idea of a paragraph rather than sentence by sentence flow. Contrary to what grammarians traditionally teach, the topic is what a sentence is “about”, and is not always the grammatical subject. To revise, start sentences with the subject and make that subject the topic of the sentence. Although these tips for revision are generally helpful, some writers might create monotonous prose by overusing and repeating the subject at the beginning of each sentence. This is no reason to resist revision- most readers are less judgmental of monotony than writers. Writers also sometimes fake coherence by using conjunctions to signal a new idea. A skilled writer creates coherent passages without overusing conjunctions.