Hook Your Reader: 7 Secrets Of Coherent and Cohesive Content

The two main components that are important in content writing are coherence and cohesion.

What’s the difference between coherence and cohesion? Coherence is about making your content meaningful, while cohesion makes it interconnected.

The term structure means the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex. A text consists of the parts and elements that make it a text.

It is time to lay bare the secrets of structuring a text, how to make it readable, enticing and unique.

Otherwise, it might be considered plagiarized and anyone could prove it with Unplag, a plagiarism checker tool.

The Cohesive Content

• Lexical Reiteration

Lexical reiteration is a repetition of a lexical item. It could be synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms or general nouns. Most people already know about synonyms and antonyms.

Hyponyms denote a more specific meaning of a general notion, for example, an animal – a horse, a car – a Volvo. Meronyms are the same as collocations (see below), yet they denote a part of something like a hand and a finger, a Christmas tree and toys, and so on.

• Lexical Repetition

Readers process words in different ways depending on the way they see them represented.

A simple list of words has no influence on a reader or a listener. It is only when you see the words embedded in a sentence that they can have an impact on you. That’s when you activate lexical processing.

The thing that links the words is a lexical repetition. Simple lexical repetition is a link between two lexical items (words) as defined by linguist Michael Hoey.

• Grammatical Cohesion

Grammatical cohesion consists of a reference, substitution, ellipsis, and a conjunction.

The reference may be personal (I, he, she, you, him, her, etc.), demonstrative (here, there, this, that), or comparative (bigger, more beautiful, the best).

Substitution is the replacement of one item by another. It aims to eliminate repetition of the same words, like when you change the noun books into ones. Ellipsis is a word exclusion. It is similar to substitution, but instead of replacement, you omit a word. Conjunctions help bring the sentences together and include such words as and, then, after that, and finally.

• Lexical Collocation

Collocations help to convey specific features of a thing or an event.

Collocations are just the words that “feel” perfect together, like a sunny day, a beautiful woman, or a dark night.

You can use various resources to pick up the most appropriate collocations, such as Ozdic, or to find the noun to an adjective at HASK Collocation Browser.

The Coherent Content

• The Planning

If I ask you what you like about an eclaire, you will probably answer with something about it being a deliciously sweet pastry.

The same is true when you read any text. You expect a certain structure to follow. So plan before you write. When you already know a question about your paper, apply these brainstorming strategies to get your ideas to come pouring out of you. Then make an outline that consists of a title, your main ideas arranged logically, a conclusion, and an introduction.

The secret is when you follow such a plan while writing, you exclude everything that is irrelevant.

• Writing Itself

Keep in mind the simple but vital paper components such as the beginning, the main part and the end. The title reflects the main question of your paper.

The first paragraph should be short and state the main idea of the whole text. Make your first sentence intriguing or funny in order to capture the reader’s attention. You know that paragraphs present different ideas, but everything still has to link and flow smoothly.

In the conclusion, sum up all the most important ideas. Also, include your personal idea or opinion here.

• The Line Argument

While developing a line argument, think of the pros and cons. Use contrast intensifiers such as however, and but. They are not just words, they convey a message that you are well aware of your topic.

Some others include in addition, besides, and moreover among others.

Wrapping It All Up

Content plays a pivotal role in all digital marketing today. Haphazard writing simply won’t suffice. As a writer, you should know how to come up with compelling content to attract as many readers as possible, otherwise you will not be able to promote your product.

The particular pieces of advice listed above give you insight into making your content coherent and cohesive.

To grab your readers’ attention you should make your content meaningful and enriched with lexical and grammatical devices.

Also, do not forget to use all the well-worn tricks such as creative images, interviews with experts or spectacular videos. Don’t forget to check our best content marketing agencies for startups article, if you are looking for a one.