Coherence is product of many different factors, which combine to make every paragraph, every sentence, and every phrase contribute to the meaning of the whole piece. Coherence in writing is much more difficult to sustain than coherent speech simply because writers have no nonverbal clues to inform them if their message is clear or not. Therefore, writers must make their patterns of coherence much more explicit and much more carefully planned. Coherence itself is the product of two factors — paragraph unity and sentence cohesion.
To achieve paragraph unity, a writer must ensure two things only. First, the paragraph must have a single generalization that serves as the focus of attention, that is, a topic sentence. Secondly, a writer must control the content of every other sentence in the paragraph's body such that (a) it contains more specific information than the topic sentence and (b) it maintains the same focus of attention as the topic sentence.
This generalization about paragraph structure holds true for the essay in particular. The two major exceptions to this formula for paragraph unity are found in fiction (where paragraph boundaries serve other functions, such as indicating when a new speaker is talking in a story) and in journalism (where paragraphs are especially short to promote 'visual' ease by creating white space).
To achieve cohesion, the link of one sentence to the next, consider the following techniques:
- Identity. Indicates sameness.
that is, that is to say, in other words, ...
- Opposition. Indicates a contrast.
but, yet, however, nevertheless, still, though, although, whereas, in contrast, rather, ...
- Addition. Indicates continuation.
and, too, also, furthermore, moreover, in addition, besides, in the same way, again, another, similarly, a similar, the same, ...
- Cause and effect.
therefore, so, consequently, as a consequence, thus, as a result, hence, it follows that, because, since, for, ...
- Indefinites. Indicates a logical connection of an unspecified type.
in fact, indeed, now, ...
- Concession. Indicates a willingness to consider the other side.
admittedly, I admit, true, I grant, of course, naturally, some believe, some people believe, it has been claimed that, once it was believed, there are those who would say, ...
- Exemplification. Indicates a shift from a more general or abstract idea to a more specific or concrete idea.
for example, for instance, after all, an illustration of, even, indeed, in fact, it is true, of course, specifically, to be specific, that is, to illustrate, truly, ...
Simplicity
Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.
But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what— these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank
Readers want to know— very soon—what's in it for them. Therefore your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. It must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question. Anything will do, as long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve. Next the lead must do some real work. It must provide hard details that tell the reader why the piece was written and why he ought to read it. But don't dwell on the reason. Coax the reader a little more; keep him inquisitive. Continue to build. Every paragraph should amplify the one that preceded it. Give more thought to adding solid detail and less to entertaining the reader. But take special care with the last sentence of each paragraph—it's the crucial springboard to the next paragraph. Try to give that sentence an extra twist of humor or surprise, like the periodic "snapper" in the routine of a standup comic. Make the reader smile and you've got him for at least one more paragraph
M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan. Although they do not propose a theory of text structure or examine humans produce texts, they do attempt to define the concept of text. To them a text is a semantic unit, the parts of which are linked together by explicit cohesive ties. Cohesion, therefore, defines a text as text. A cohesive tie "is a semantic relation between an element in a text and some other element that is crucial to the interpretation of it".
Coherence has been an indefinite concept arousing much controversy. Nevertheless, there is some consensus in defining this concept in that it should be conceptualized as the quality of the text with respect to the effects of the text on the reader.
One aspect of the Quranic literature that’s been explored in quite a bit of detail is the coherence or connectivity in the Quran: understanding how the different verses, passages and Surahs in the Quran connect to each other in terms of their themes and meaning.
This is not surprising, since one of the things about the Quran that many people find baffling is its apparent lack of shape. Topics in the book are introduced randomly without any context; the relation between passages is often hard to understand, as is the rationale behind the way the Surahs are arranged.
This is very different from what we expect literature to be. In any form of communication- be they books, articles, essays or even speeches- we expect a gradual development of thought, and each part of the literature being linked to its proximate parts.
Many people think that this coherence or connectivity isn’t really there in the Quran, and that’s what they find so baffling about it. So when the Quran started being studied by western experts, much attention was turned to discovering whether the book has any underlying coherence that the people have been missing.
While this is a work in progress, the intermediate results of this quest have been really interesting. As of now, there is a general consensus among experts in this field that the Quran is anything but shapeless. This directly contradicts the perception many people might have had about the Quran. In fact, research indicates that the Quran exhibits an extremely deep and complex level of coherence. It is safe to say that the experts, regardless of their religious persuasion, acknowledge the fact that the Quran is nothing short of a literary masterpiece. How they interpret this fact, however, is where the difference between belief and unbelief lie.
Before we continue, let’s consider what coherence is. When you write an essay, you need it to make sense. You can’t just randomly chuck all of your thoughts on the paper. Rather, you have to arrange your thoughts in a certain, sequential way so the reader can follow it. You are (I hope!) able to comprehend this article properly because it has coherence- the topics that come up are connected with each other. Themes in the article have been developing in a linear, sequential way- first we were talking about how Quran’s miracle is being neglected, then about how it’s being revived, and now about examples.
Even within these sections, there is progression of thought. Without this linkage between the different passages, the article would be haphazard and impossible to follow. This feature which gives a piece of literature intelligibility is called coherence.
Coherence is more difficult to achieve in oral, as opposed to written, communication. In a conversation, topics keep coming up one after the other- you may start by talking about your favorite food, get reminded of your dog somewhere down the line, and switch the conversation accordingly. While talking about your dog, some verbal cue may come up which leads you into a tangent about the weather these days. You may even parenthetically include some comments in between. To maintain coherence in an oral communication, you must have some sort of a plan as regards how the speech is laid out. That’s why it’s so important to prepare speeches beforehand. The longer your speech is, the more preparation you’d need.
In specific terms, coherence is achieved in three ways:
1 Through the use of stock transition words or phrases that serve the specific function of indicating how a paragraph or sentence relates to the one before it.
2. Through the use of pronouns that non only stand in for nouns but also carry the idea the noun represents through a passage.
3. Through the use of recycled words or through repetition,
which connects paragraphs or sentences by making a transition from a given use
of a word or phrase to a new use.
In short, then, coherence means creating a chain. Even if the paragraphs and sentences in writing appear to be independent of one another, they are not.
Coherence - the underlying message
Coherence is the underlying, over all meaning of a message,
reflected through a dynamic process of text building, which includes both
linguistic and pragmatic sources, This is a bottom-up view
of text analysis and discourse. Some advocate a top-down
view of text analysis. This view assumes that a text has underlying coherence
which is reflected through surface features. This is
easily assumed when the entire text is available for analysis.
Transitional expressions
To add or shoe sequence; to compare; to contrast; to give examples or intensify; to indicate place; to indicate time; to repeat, summarize or conclude;
The Quran (literally meaning recitation) was primarily oral communication, but it wasn’t continuous speech. It was revealed piecemeal over the course of 23 years in many different contexts. It wasn’t arranged chronologically, either. The Surahs and ayat in the book were arranged according to special Prophetic instructions- which explains why the Surah that was revealed first ended up occupying the 96th position.
Additionally, unlike in written literature, there was no scope of ‘editing’ the Quran after the Prophet recited new verses. Once he recited new verses, the audience heard them immediately and recorded them. He couldn’t change the way it was said or change the order of the ayat after specifying. In sum, the Quran’s revelation and compilation followed a very exotic route. Coherence in such a bizarre book would be the last thing you’d expect. And yet, not only does the Quran have coherence, but it (at least many parts of it) exhibits a unique, sophisticated structure called semitic coherence.
To illustrate what that is, go back to the example of this article. The coherence of the article is linear- its introduction thematically follows into the next section, the next section develops a theme that is then picked up by the next section…and thus continues the whole thing. Coherence in an essay means each section being connected to the next section, and as such an essay resembles a line.
In many ancient writings however, a different and more complex coherence scheme was adopted. A discourse designed according to this scheme looked more like a ring than a line. The first passage in such a ring discourse would connect linguistically and thematically not to the next passage; but to the last passage. The second passage would thus connect with the second to last one, the third to the third to last one, and so on.
The key message of the whole discussion was situated at the center. This peculiar style of writing is called semitic coherence. This scheme is obviously much more complex than a linear scheme, and required lots of effort to produce. Mostly, therefore, such a complex scheme of coherence was reserved for more important (e.g. religious) literature.
Many books in the Old Testament demonstrate semitic coherence, which is not surprising- seeing that was how religious literature was often written back then. The fact that the Bible was primarily a written document also made such an accomplishment feasible.
Interestingly, the Quran also demonstrates varying degrees of semitic coherence. This is extremely surprising because given the unique way the Quran was revealed and compiled, coherence is the last thing you’d expect from it. The fact that it demonstrates such a complex mode of coherence is simply baffling.
The story of Yusuf/Joseph (peace be upon him) as it appears in the Quran is one example of it. Surah Yusuf consists of a number of passages. When we look at the theme of each passage and arrange them in order, a symmetric structure arises. The following scheme was suggested by Michael Cuypers:
As can be seen, the passages form a chiasmus or a mirror. Prophet Yusuf’s brief but profound sermon in the prison cell, which consists of his declaration of the superiority of monotheism over other doctrines and his self-identification as a prophet of monotheism, falls at the center of this symmetry.
An even more fascinating example of ring structure or semitic coherence in the Quran is exemplified by Surah Baqarah. Not only is it the biggest Surah in the Quran, but the topics covered in here are very diverse. It is for these reasons that this Surah’s structure seems particularly challenging to understand. Nonetheless, a number of Muslim and non-Muslim experts have tried their hand in unearthing the underlying coherence of Surah Baqarah.
The research by Raymond Farrin, one of the contemporary scholars of Quranic coherence, is of particular note. Professor Farrin, in his essay ‘Surat al-Baqara: A Structural Analysis’ has analyzed all these other attempts at discovering the coherence of Baqarah, and convincingly argued that the Surah forms a complex, ring-shaped discourse. In his scheme, the Surah has nine major sections, and the key themes of the sections form the following ring:
This ring scheme may seem simpler than that of Surah Yusuf, but there is much more to it than meets the eye. For example, the mirror sections (A and A’, B and B’ etc) correspond to each other not only because of their thematic links, but also because of linguistic links. In other words, each section has some signature words, phrases and internal themes, and the mirror sections share these linguistic signatures. The sections, therefore, correspond both because of their thematic and linguistic connections. The following analysis by Farrin is not exhaustive, but it demonstrates this point:
The complexity of Surah Baqarah’s structure doesn’t stop here. Not only is it that the entire Surah is one big ring, but the individual sections in the Surah themselves often form ring-like structures. So instead of having a circular chain made of links, you have a circular chain made of links which are, in turn, circular chains made of links. Readers can go ahead and peruse Farrin’s fascinating essay for the examples. For brevity’s sake, I’ll only present one example. In Farrin’s analysis of section D’ (vv. 153-177), the following concentric structure emerges:
153-158 Exhortation to Believers, seek help with patience and prayer,
God will test you with adversity
159-160 Those Jews and Christians who conceal guidance are cursed
161-173 Those who disbelieve, who worship others besides God,
will not leave the Fire
174-176 Those Jews and Christians who conceal the scripture will experience torment
177 Good are those who keep up the prayer, who are patient in adversity
The entire Surah is shot through with such internal ring-structures; and these, in turn, make up the entire ring of the Surah. As a last approximation of the complexity of Baqarah, turn your attention to the center of it. The logic of the Surah thus far is that the Bani Israel (C) failed to live up to God’s expectations from men (B), and as such the occasion now is for a change of God’s favor. The section on Abraham (D) hints at the fact that an apostle is coming who would lead his people to God, and the center of the Surah (E) reveals this people is none other than the Muslims, led by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him).
The change of God’s favor from the Bani Israel to the Muslims is represented by the changing of the qibla from Jerusalem to Makkah- the very city Abraham was praying for. God then consummates this discussion by warning the Muslims of tests they would have to face- as faced by Adam, Bani Israel and Abraham- and says the Muslims are a middle nation. Incidentally, this last piece of information occurs at the dead center of the Surah (v. 143).
Now go back and think about how the Quran was revealed and compiled- is it even remotely possible that a person can produce such a degree of complexity, sophistication and coherence in an oral literature that was produced piecemeal and disjointedly over the course of 23 years and then put together non-chronologically?
Can someone really install this level of complexity and coherence in a long piece of literature like Surah Baqarah that was revealed for years on so many different occasions and contexts?
The more I study the Quran, the more strongly I realize that literature of the Quran is indeed miraculous and unsurpassable. It now falls on us Muslims to educate ourselves with it, and then disseminate the knowledge so Muslims can find new vigor in their faith.
Surface texts are the exact words that people see or hear. Cohesion concerns the ways in which the components of the surface text are connected within a sequence. Grammatical forms and conventions are adhered to by surface components and therefore cohesion rests upon grammatical dependencies. The grammatical dependencies in surface texts are major signals for sorting out meanings and uses. Cohesion encompasses all of the functions that can be used to signal relations among surface elements.
Coherence concerns the ways in which concepts and relations, which underlie the surface text, are linked, relevant and used, to achieve efficient communication.
Surface texts may not always express relations explicitly therefore people supply as many relations as are needed to make sense out of any particular text. In the example of the road sign "SLOW CARS HELD UP', "cars" is an object concept and "held up" an action concept, and the "cars" are the link to "held up'. Therefore, "slow" is more likely to be interpreted as a motion than as the speed at which cars are traveling. Types of relations include:
The event of "raining" causes the event of "washing the spider out" because it creates the necessary conditions for the latter; without the rain, the spider will not be washed out.
The action of sitting on the wall created the sufficient but not necessary conditions for the action of falling down. Sitting on a wall makes it possible but not obligatory for falling down to occur.
In contrast to the rain which causes Itsy Bitsy spider to be washed out, the slow working does not actually cause or enable the low wage. Instead, the low wage is a reasonable outcome; "reason" is used to term actions that occur as a rational response to a previous event.
In contrast to Humpty Dumpty's action of sitting on the wall which enables the action of falling down, there is a plan involved here; Humpty Dumpty did not sit on the wall so that it could fall down but Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard so that she could get a bone. "Purpose" is used to term events that are planned to be made possible via a previous event.
Texture is the basis for unity and semantic interdependence within text. Any text that lacks texture would simply be a bunch of isolated sentences that have no relationship to each other. (Crane, 1994)[10] A feature of texture is "sequential implicativeness", as suggested by Schegloff and Sacks (1974). This refers to the property of language such that each line in a text is linked from or linked to the previous line. As such, language contains a linear sequence and this linear progression of text creates a context of meaning.[11] This contextual meaning, at the paragraph level is referred to as "coherence", while the internal properties of meaning are referred to as "cohesion". (Eggins, 1994: 85)[12] There are two aspects of coherence, namely, "situational" coherence and "generic" coherence. There is situational coherence when field, tenor, and mode can be identified for a certain group of clauses. On the other hand, there is generic coherence when the text can be recognized as belonging to a certain genre. Thereby, cohesion is the result of "semantic ties", which refers to the dependent links between items within a text. These ties come together to create meaning. Texture is, therefore, created within text when the properties of coherence and cohesion are present.
Most linguists agree on the classification into five text-types: narrative, descriptive, argumentative, instructive, and comparison/contrast. Some classifications divide the types of texts according to their function. Others differ because they take into consideration the topic of the texts, the producer and the addressee, or the style. Adam and Petitjean, (1989) proposed analyzing of overlaps of different text types with text sequences. Virtanen (1992) establishes a double classification (discourse type and text type) to be used when the Identification text-text type is not straightforward.[13]
A paragraph is a brief piece of writing that's around seven to ten sentences long. It has a topic sentence and supporting sentences that all relate closely to the topic sentence. The paragraph form refers to its overall structure, which is a group of sentences focusing on a single topic.
There are three main parts of a paragraph:
The topic sentence is usually the first sentence but it can appear at any point in the paragraph. The main thing is to be sure you have a topic sentence because it gives your paragraph its focus, similar to a thesis statement in an essay.
Experts suggest it is useful to view the vocabulary of a language/text as a set of words referring to a series of conceptual fields. In linguistics, these divisions are called Semantic fields. A semantic field or semantic domain is a set of words grouped by meaning referring to a subject; languages will have fields of distance, location, size, shape, time, emotion, beliefs, economics, academic subjects, natural phenomena, etc. Each field can have many sub-divisions or lexical sets: actual words and expressions. Semantic fields are arranged hierarchically, going from the more general to the more specific. Linguists generally refer the general word by umbrella term "superordinate" and the specific word as "hyponym". The propositional meaning carried by a general word or superordinate is part of the meaning of each of its hyponyms but not vice versa. In Arabic, each Root is specific to a semantic field referring to a subject.
It is useful to view the vocabulary of a language/text as a set of words referring to a series of conceptual fields. In linguistics, these divisions are called Semantic fields. A semantic field or semantic domain is a set of words grouped by meaning referring to a specific subject; languages will have fields of distance, location, size, shape, time, emotion, beliefs, economics, academic subjects, natural phenomena, etc. Each field can have many sub-divisions or lexical sets: actual words and expressions. Semantic fields are arranged hierarchically, going from the more general to the more specific. Linguists generally refer the general word as "superordinate" and the specific word as "hyponym". The propositional meaning carried by a general word or superordinate is part of the meaning of each of its hyponyms but not vice versa.
Grand Qur'aan is the book that has built in lexicon for its important words and terms, like books on law-constitution, and scientific facts. It defines its terms, and exposes the perception and meanings of important words in picturesque manner by using it in different semantic fields whereby one can perceive all its dimensions relating to substance as well accident, including metaphorical aspect. It exposes the perception and meanings of its important words picturesquely by relationships and contrasts. [Annexure: Inbuilt guidance for translation: Criterion - Keys for translation of Grand Qur'aan]
What is the difference between a word and a term? A word is usually defined as a complete meaningful element of a language. All terms are words, but not all words are terms. A term is a particular definition of a word, which is applicable to a special situation. Terms occur only in the process of communication. They occur when the writer tries to avoid ambiguity and a reader follow his use of words.
The Ayah comprises of 69 separate words. In English language, it is called a paragraph that is around seven to ten sentences long. The paragraph form refers to its overall structure, which is a group of sentences focusing on a single topic.
There are three main parts of a paragraph:
The paragraph unity is maintained when every other sentence would give specific information than the topic sentence that maintains the same focus of attention as the topic sentence.
Vocabulary teaching be aimed at raising awareness of word potential so that its properties can be fully exploited.
A key element of successful native-like performance in a foreign language is mastery of lexical relation - collocations, lexical phrases, fixed phrases.
When there is ambiguity in the communication of knowledge, all that is in common are the words that one persons speaks or writes and another hears or reads. So long as ambiguity persists, there is no meaning in common between writer and reader. For the communication to be successfully completed, therefore, it is necessary for the two parties to use the same words with the same meaning----in short, to come to terms. When that happens, communication happens, the miracle of two minds with but a single thought.
Cohesive Ties:
The text is linked together by explicit cohesive ties. Cohesion, therefore,
defines a text as text. A cohesive tie "is a a semantic relation between an
element in a text and some other element that is crucial to the interpretation
of it. The two semantically connected elements can lie within the text or one
element can lie outside the text. Halliday and Hassan call within-text cohesive
ties endophoric and reference to item outside the text exophoric. An example of
an exophoric reference is the editorial "we" in a newspaper. Such references are
exophoric because no antecedent is recoverable within the text.
Exophoric
references often help link a text to its situational context; but, as far as Halliday and Hasan are concerned, exophoric references do not contribute to the
cohesion of a text. For them, cohesion depends upon lexical and grammatical
relationships that allow sentence sequences to be understood as connected
discourse rather than as autonomous sentences. Even though within-sentence
cohesive ties do occur, the cohesive ties across "sentence boundaries" are those
which allow sequences of sentences to be understood as a text.
Reference cohesion occurs when one item in a text points to another element for its interpretation. Reference ties are of three types: pronominal, demonstratives and definite articles, and comparatives.
Cohesion occurs when the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependant on that of another.
Allah the Exalted has mentioned some episodes in the Grand Qur'aan, particularly those about which many people were or could be rendered in a perplexed and confused state of mind by Epistemology of Testimony. It is a known fact that many Psychological Manipulators distort the history and spread conjectural myths.
One such narrative is about the birth of Easa alai'his'slaam, the son of Maryam the truthful. Narrative is a Factual Recount. Narrative texts have to do with real-world events and time. The purposes of narrative may be to inform, to persuade and/or to correct the record, rectify the falsities gleaned by people from the Epistemology of Testimony.
Narrative writing uses time as its deep structure. Language features of narrative text are:
Adverb of time.
Past tense.
Time conjunction (when, then, thereat, suddenly, etc)
Specific character. The character of the episode is specific, not general.
Action verbs. A verb that shows an action.
Direct speech. It is to make the episode lively.
In Arabic, the word for Narrative- a
Real-Life Event is:
:
It stems from Root:
ق ص ص
.
The basic perception infolded, in the
words of Ibne Faris [died 1005] is that of following and tracking
something, literally step by step. Lane's Lexicon portrayed this
perception in these words; "to follow after one's track or footprints in
pursuit; endeavour to trace or track someone".
A compilation of the sequence of happenings in the
past is episode:,
a part of history but distinct and of specific significance from the
greater whole. Each part/segment of this
compilation is unitary news, an activity; each segment is distinct
static image like a mark/footprint. Each movement has, and leaves behind
consecutive, one after the other images-traces. The movement/activity
may apparently vanish but if we had seen or recorded the activity which
is nothing but saving in memory or tape-disk the images, we can see that
movement again either by recalling from memory or rewinding the tape and
playing it back.
Therefore:
denotes narrating the episode in the
exact manner of its actual happening, displaying the pictures of it clip
by clip, image by image: the footage in present day parlance so that the activity and actual
happening could be visualized by the listener and reader.
Before we start reading and
observing it in our imagination the episode:relating
to the birth of Easa
alai'his'slaam,
the son of Maryam the truthful, we should keep in
mind that the main structural components of a narrative are the
orientation, the complication and the resolution, and may include a concluding
statement or comment in order to sum up the message.
Organic unity is the idea that a thing is made up of interdependent parts. For example, a body is made up of its constituent organs, and a society is made up of its constituent social roles.
Organic unity was propounded by the philosopher Plato as a theory of literature. He explored the idea in such works as The Republic, Phaedrus, and Gorgias. But it was Aristotle, one of Plato's students, who advanced the idea and discussed it more explicitly.
In Poetics (c. 335 BCE), Aristotle describes organic unity by explaining how writing relies internally on narration and drama to be cohesive; but without balance between the two sides, the work suffers. The main theme of organic unity relies on a free spirited style of writing and by following any guidelines or genre-based habits, the true nature of a work becomes stifled and unreliable on an artistic plane.[1]
The concept of organic unity gained popularity through the New Critics movement. Cleanth Brooks (1906–94) played an integral role in modernizing the organic unity principle. Using the poem The Well Wrought Urn as an example, Brooks related the importance of a work’s ability to flow and maintain a theme, so that the work gains momentum from beginning to end. Organic unity is the common thread that keeps a theme from becoming broken and disjointed as a work moves forward.[2]
Unity is the truth and the truth unity.
Unity means "oneness".