Cohesion

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Cohesion means joining a text together with reference words
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9 (e.g. he, theirs, the former) and conjunctions (e.g. but, then) so
20 that the whole text is clear and readable. This unit practises the
1 use of reference words, while conjunctions are examined in
2 Unit 3.5.
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6 1 Reference words
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8 These are used to avoid repetition:
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30 Leonardo da Vinci was a fifteenth-century Italian genius who
1 produced only a handful of finished works. However, they
2 include the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, the former perhaps
3 the most famous painting in the world. Although he is
4 remembered mainly as an artist, he also was an innovative
5 engineer, scientist and anatomist.
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8 Here the reference words function as follows:
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40 Leonardo da Vinci finished works Mona Lisa
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2 he they the former
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116 Part 2 Elements of writing

Examples of reference words and phrases

Pronouns he/ she/ it/ they

Possessive pronouns his/ her/ hers/ its/ their/ theirs

Objective pronouns her/ him/ them

Demonstrative pronouns this/ that/ these/ those

Other phrases the former/ the latter/ the first/ the

second/ such a

2 Practice A
■ Read the following paragraph and complete the table.

2.1 La Ferrera (1997) has researched the life cycle of new

businesses. She found that they have an average life
of only 4.7 years. This is due to two main reasons; one
economic and one social. The former appears to be a lack of
capital, the latter a failure to carry out sufficient market
research. La Ferrera considers that together these account for
approximately 70 per cent of business failures.

Reference Reference word/ phrase

La Ferrera She

new businesses

average life of only 4.7 years

one economic

one social

the former. . ., the latter. . .