Granovetter argues that because of this, bridge ties between cliques are always weak ties (1973:1364). In brief, balance theory tells us that if an actor, A, is strongly tied to both B and C, it is extremely likely that B and C are, sooner or later, going to be tied to each other (1973:1363). Granovetter begins by looking at balance theory. Thus, I discuss creating cohesion and coherent paragraphs here as if you already have some rough text written and are in the process of smoothing out your prose to clarify your argument for both your reader and yourself.Ĭohesion refers to the flow from sentence to sentence. The most useful guides advise you to first focus on getting your ideas on paper and then revising for organization and wordsmithing later, refining the analysis as you go. Focus first and most on your ideas, on crafting an ambitious analysis. For the most part, a text reads smoothly when it conveys a thoughtful and well organized argument or analysis. I encourage you to focus on underlying structure. 9 Some students worry too much about “flow” and spend a lot of time on sentence-level issues to promote it. As Williams and Bizup 8 explain, cohesion is about the “sense of flow” (how each sentence fits with the next), while coherence is about the “sense of the whole”. With a key sentence established, the next task is to shape the body of your paragraph to be both cohesive and coherent.

Cohesion vs coherence