Text Organization and Coherence: One Job per Paragraph
Text Organization and Coherence is scored on how your ideas are arranged and connected. A reader should be able to follow your text once, without backtracking, because each paragraph does one job and each sentence points clearly to the next. This domain is assessed in your written production and also in questions that ask you to order sentences, choose the best transition, or spot the sentence that does not belong.
Structure at the level of the whole text
- Introduction: context and purpose - or your position, in an opinion text - in two or three sentences.
- Body: one controlling idea per paragraph, opened by a topic sentence, then supported by a fact, example or reason.
- Conclusion: restate, recommend or look ahead, in new words rather than a copy of the introduction.
- Narratives follow a timeline with a clear complication and resolution; letters follow their format; reports put the most important information first.
Cohesion inside and between paragraphs
- Reference: pronouns and determiners (this, they, such, the former) must point to one obvious earlier noun.
- Repetition with variation: repeat key terms, then use synonyms so the text does not sound mechanical.
- Transitions by function: addition (in addition, furthermore), contrast (however, although, on the other hand), cause and effect (therefore, as a result, because of), sequence (first, then, eventually), example (for instance), summary (to sum up).
- Paragraph length: three to six sentences; a new idea means a new paragraph.
Worked example
Paragraph: "Mobile phones should be allowed in class. They can be used as dictionaries and calculators. Also, my cousin just bought a new phone. Teachers can run quick polls with them."
Problems: the cousin sentence is off-topic and breaks paragraph unity; "Also" is a weak opener; "them" is vague.
Revision: "Mobile phones should be allowed in class for two reasons. First, they work as instant dictionaries and calculators, which saves time during exercises. Second, teachers can use them to run quick polls, so every student answers instead of only the confident ones."
Reasoning: the revision keeps one idea per sentence, replaces "Also" with a sequence marker, and makes every reference explicit.
Traps
- A transition with the wrong function - "However" where you mean "In addition".
- A pronoun with two possible antecedents ("He told his brother that he was late").
- One long paragraph carrying three separate ideas.
- A conclusion that repeats the introduction word for word.
- Answering in bullet points when the task asks for a continuous text.