Academic Writing in English

Week 6 Lecture Notes

Cohesion

Guinea Pigs

 

Guinea pigs belong to the family of Caviidae and are native to South America. They are small, plump rodents and have short ears, short legs and no tail, In many ways, they are like their cousins, the hampsters. There are three main types of guinea pig: the English, which has short hair; the Peruvian, which has long hair; and the Abyssinian, which has swirled hair. The colours may be solid white, grey, brown or black. In the wild, guinea pigs are sociable animals. In captivity, they make good pets and have become popular throughout the world.

 

Mapping cohesive ties in text

Guinea pigs belong to the family of Caviidae and _ are native to South   America. They are small, plump rodents and _ have short ears, short legs   and no tail, In many ways, they are like their cousins, the hampsters.   There are three main types of guinea pig: the English _ , which has short   hair; the Peruvian _ , which has long hair; and the Abyssinian _, which                            Their has swirled hair. The colours may be solid white, grey, brown or black. In   the wild, guinea pigs are sociable animals. In captivity, they make good   pets and _ have become popular throughout the world.

 

 

[From B. Derewianka (1998) A Grammar Companion for primary teachers p70. Primary English Teaching Association]

The Vain Jackdaw

 

 The Vain Jackdaw

 

A vain Jackdaw, tired of his drab plumage, was envious of the brilliant colours of the Peacock. He picked up some of the feathers which the Peacocks had shed along the bank of the river, _ stuck them amongst his own and _ admired his reflection in the water.

 

Despising his old companions, he introduced himself to a flock of those beautiful birds. They, instantly detected the intruder, stripped him of his borrowed plumes, and falling upon him with their beaks and claws, _ sent him about his business.

 

The humbled Jackdaw, sorely punished and deeply sorrowing, took himself off to his former companions, hoping to rejoin his old flock as if nothing had happened. But they, recollecting how conceited he was, drummed him out of their society, admonishing him that if he had been contented with what nature made of him, he would have escaped the chastisement of his betters and the contempt of his equals.

 

Aesop’s Fables

 

  [From B. Derewianka (1998) A Grammar Companion for primary teachers p107. Primary English Teaching Association]

 

 

Pelicans

Pelicans are part of the bird family. Pelicans have a big bill with a pouch. Most Pelicans have white body feathers. All Pelicans have short legs. Most Pelicans have webbed feet. Most Pelicans live around the coast. Pelicans eat crustaceans, crabs, fish and shrimps. Pelicans fly with their head back. Pelicans lay two, three or four white eggs. They take thirty-five days to hatch.

 

 

Improving the cohesion in text

Pelicans are part of the bird family.      They Pelicans have a big bill with a pouch. Most    of them Pelicans have white body feathers. All                                          and they usually Pelicans have short legs. Most Pelicans     have webbed feet. Most Pelicans live                                 They around the coast. Pelicans eat crustaceans,                                             and__ crabs, fish and shrimps. Pelicans fly with     their head back. Pelicans lay two, three or                             which four white eggs. They take thirty-five days      to hatch.

Pronoun they referring back to pelicans   Pronoun them referring back to they and pelicans       Pronoun they referring back to pelicans     Leaving out same subject       They could refer back to pelicans but which can only refer to eggs

 

[‘Pelicans’: English K-6 modules 1998: 135 Copy right Board of Studies NSW. Reproduced from Butt, David, Fahey, Rhondda, Feez, Susan, Spinks, Sue, Yallop, Colin (2000) Using Functional Grammar: An Explorer's Guide p11 Sydney: NCELTR]]

 

 

 

 

 

Public transport or cars

 

Public transport provides many benefits for society. By using buses and trains we are reducing the pollution from cars. We are also saving the costs of maintaining a huge road system. Another benefit is that it saves us money in terms of buying a car, paying for the petrol, and having it serviced, etc.

However, people still like to use their cars. This is because they can more easily go to the exact location that they want, in the time they want. If you use a car, you can generally park close to work or close to the shops. People still like to use a car because it is there when they need it and they don't have to fit in with timetables and services that don't run on weekends. Having a car makes bringing home your shopping easier. Many people see their car as a status symbol and a way to show their success; others just love driving and it's a hobby for them.

 

So, in spite of the personal cost and the costs to the environment, people will still want to use their cars in preference to public transport.

 

 

[Judith Rochecouste]

 

Public transport or cars

 

Public transport provides many benefits for society. By using buses and trains, we are reducing the pollution from cars. We are also saving the costs of maintaining a huge road system. Another benefit is that it saves us money in terms of buying a car, paying for the petrol, and having it serviced, etc.

 

However, people still like to use their cars. This is because they can more easily go to the exact location that they want, in the time they want. If you use a car, you can generally park close to work or close to the shops. People still like to use a car because it is there when they need it and they don't have to fit in with timetables and services that don't run on weekends. Having a car makes bringing home your shopping easier. Many people see their car as a status symbol and a way to show their success; others just love driving and it's a hobby for them.

 

So, in spite of the personal cost and the costs to the environment, people will still want to use their cars in preference to public transport.

 

Cohesion is a grammatical term referring to the way that text links together.  We will look at six ways in which text is linked together, these include:

 

 

 

Cohesion in Aboriginal English texts does always follow the rules of Standard English texts.

Non-Aboriginal listeners will have difficulty understandings these texts

·        Reference is to schemas instead of actual discourse

·        pronouns used without any referencing function

·        schema-oriented referencing rather than discourse-oriented.

 [Sharifian F. (2000) Chaos in Aboriginal English discourse. In Kirkpatrick (ed) Englishes in Asia: Communication, identity, power and education. Melbourne: language Australia (121-141)]

Text 63

L:         These people1, these reporters1, they1 tol’- they1 gave um these Aboridinal boys2 to ah throw3 rocks4 at the .. car5, when they1 go past, a- cos they1 gave them2 a hundred dollars6, [an when they1-xxx report]     D:         [Who2 they1 gave a hundred dollars6?]       L:         Um the reporters1 gave the Aboriginal kids2 sw- um boys2 an they1 had a- D:         [Yeah which boys2 they1 gave it6 to im2 ]     L:         I dunno Sir was tellin us this EH:      [An they2 done it3, they2 threw the st4-]     L:         They2 threw the things4 at em1 an um they1 try to make                everybody sayin that they2 threw the rocks4 at it5, an then they2 ran              home, but they2 ran to the shop to buy um- to spend their2 money6     EH:          (laughs) That’s a typical thing isn’t it? JR:       They1 were making their own news were they1? M:        What 1 pretendin- tendin that they2 was gonna throw3 rocks4                    but they1 couldn’t really cos it’s shockin EH:      nyorn.. tch tch L:         An they1 was tryin to say that they2 ran home                but um their2  Mum’s went and told em1 um them1 that                they2 wasn’t- they2 went to the shop to buy- to spend their2   money6 because they1 gave em2 a hundred dollars6 just to do it3       EH:      Then they2 woulda got on the news an say ‘You1 paid us a hundred6 to do this3, they2 woulda got more money (laughs) Oh no, that is bad, anythink-

Introduce #1 Introduce #2, #3, #4, #5 Co-reference with #1 Co-reference with #2 Introduce #6   Co-reference with #2 Co-reference with #1 Lexical cohesion with #6 Co-reference with #1 Co-reference with #2 (x2) Co-reference with #2 (x2) Co-reference with #1 Co-reference with #6   Co-reference with #2 (x2) Co-reference with #3 Co-reference with #4 Co-reference with #2 Co-reference with #4 Co-reference with #1 (x2) Co-reference with #2 (x2) Co-reference with #4 Co-reference with #3 Co-reference with #2 (x2) Co-reference with #6   Co-reference with #1 (x1)   Ellipsis of referent #1 Co-reference with #2 Lexical cohesion with #3 Lexical cohesion with #4 Co-reference with #1   Co-reference with #1 Co-reference with #2 Co-reference with #2 Co-reference with #1 (x2) Co-reference with #2 (x3) Lexical cohesion with #6 Co-reference with #1 Co-reference with #2 Lexical cohesion with #6 Co-reference with #3 Co-reference with #2 Co-reference with #1 Lexical cohesion with #6 Co-reference with #3 Co-reference with #2

 

Five referential chains:

 

• the reporters (#1),
• the Aboriginal boys (#2),
• the throwing (#3),
• the rocks (#4),
• the car (#5),
• the hundred dollars (#6). 

 

That is, excluding generic references to ‘everybody' and the ‘Auntie’ who told the narrator the story.

 

 

What have we learnt today:

 

• Texts are intricately meshed together

 

• They are linked between sentences and between paragraphs

 

• There are actual systems for linking them together (reference, lexical cohesion, text connectives, parallelism, substitution and ellipsis)