IELTS Coherence and Cohesion: What Examiners Actually Look For

Coherence and Cohesion is worth 25% of your IELTS Writing score, and it is the criterion candidates most often try to fix in the wrong way. The usual response to "your essay does not flow" is to add more linking words — but the band descriptors specifically call out overuse of connectives as a problem.

Understanding what the criterion actually measures makes it much easier to improve.

Coherence and cohesion are two different things

Coherence is about ideas. Does the essay have a logical order? Does each paragraph do one job? Can a reader follow the argument from the introduction to the conclusion without going back?

Cohesion is about language. Are sentences connected clearly? Is it obvious what "this", "they", and "such measures" refer to? Are the connectives accurate?

You can have one without the other. An essay stuffed with "furthermore" and "in addition" has cohesive devices but may be completely incoherent. An essay with a beautifully logical argument may still be hard to read if every sentence starts from scratch.

What earns marks: logical progression

The clearest signal of coherence is that each paragraph moves the argument forward rather than restating it.

Ask of every paragraph: what does this one add that the previous one did not? If the honest answer is "nothing much", the paragraph needs a different idea rather than better linking words.

A workable progression for a discussion essay:

• Paragraph 1 — the position, stated once and clearly.
• Paragraph 2 — the strongest reason, developed.
• Paragraph 3 — a second, genuinely different reason, developed.
• Paragraph 4 — restatement of the position with the reasoning summarised.

What earns marks: one central topic per paragraph

The Band 7 descriptor asks for a clear central topic in each paragraph. The simplest way to deliver that is a topic sentence — a single sentence at the start that names the idea.

Remote working reduces a household's fixed costs in ways that go beyond the obvious.

Everything after that sentence should support it. When you find yourself writing a sentence that does not relate to the topic sentence, you have started a new paragraph.

What earns marks: referencing

Referencing is the quiet half of cohesion, and it is where strong scripts differ from average ones. Instead of repeating a noun phrase, you point back to it.

Repetitive: Governments should invest in renewable energy. Renewable energy reduces emissions. Renewable energy also creates jobs.

Cohesive: Governments should invest in renewable energy. Doing so reduces emissions, and the construction and maintenance work involved creates a substantial number of jobs.

Useful referencing devices:

• Pronouns — it, they, this, these, such
• Summary nouns — this approach, such measures, the shift, that argument
• Substitution — the former, the latter, the same, one

Summary nouns are particularly effective because they compress an entire previous sentence into two words while showing you have understood it.

What loses marks: mechanical connectives

Compare these two paragraphs:

Overloaded: Firstly, online learning is convenient. Moreover, it is cheap. Furthermore, it is flexible. In addition, it reaches remote areas. Therefore, it is beneficial.

Natural: Online learning removes most of the practical barriers to study. It costs less than campus tuition, it fits around shift work and childcare, and it reaches learners in areas where no institution is within travelling distance.

The second version has one connective and reads far better. The connections are carried by the sentence structure and by the shared topic, not by signposts.

Use connectives where the logical relationship would otherwise be unclear — particularly contrast (however, whereas, although) and consequence (as a result, which means that). Skip them where the relationship is already obvious.

What loses marks: unclear reference

Unclear: Schools have introduced tablets and some parents have objected to them. This is a problem.

What is the problem — the tablets, or the objection? Ambiguous "this" is one of the most common cohesion faults.

Clear: Schools have introduced tablets and some parents have objected. This resistance is a problem because it slows adoption in exactly the schools that would benefit most.

Rule of thumb: when a sentence starts with this, follow it with a noun.

A quick self-check

After writing an essay, run these four checks. Each takes under a minute.

1. Cover test. Cover the body and read only the introduction and conclusion. Do they agree?
2. Topic sentence test. Read only the first sentence of each paragraph. Do they form a summary of the argument?
3. This test. Find every this, these, and such. Is the reference unmistakable?
4. Connective count. Count the connectives in one paragraph. More than three is usually too many.

Practise progression, not vocabulary lists

Memorising longer lists of linking phrases is the least efficient way to improve this criterion. The higher-value practice is planning: spend five minutes ordering your ideas before writing, and write out the four topic sentences before you write the paragraphs. If those four sentences read as a coherent argument on their own, the essay behind them usually will too.