Module 1 — Effective
writing: Strategies
and principles
| Course Guide | Module 1 | Module 2a | Module 2b |
SECTION 3: Developing your writing skills
Thinking and writing processes differ. Thinking can be quite lateral, loose and unstructured. However, if writing is to be effective, it must be coherent so that the reader can follow the logic of the document.
Coherence is achieved by:
- putting ideas together in your sentences in a way that shows the relationship between the ideas;
- placing sentences in paragraphs in a way that all sentences contribute to the paragraph's central idea or theme;
- using the logic of your organization to hold together paragraphs and enable an easy flow from one paragraph to the next.
Without these features, your writing will lack coherence (flow) and your reader will have a difficult time understanding you. There are many factors in writing that work together to create a coherent and convincing document. In this section, we will explore some of the areas where mistakes are most frequently made.