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COHESION

如果你查看英英字典cohesion的定義類似如下:

Something that is cohesive consists of parts that fit together well and form a united whole. 在這個定義裡你再度看到連貫性的特性 … consists of parts that fit together well and form a united whole. 再度你的文章內容必須具連貫性, 才會讓讀者在閱讀你的文章時, 跟得上你的思緒而瞭解你在講什麼. 但同樣是連貫性, cohesion所強調的是什麼因素呢? 那就是pronoun reference (指定代名詞)在語意(context)裡所明確指定的人物或事件. 一般而言以下代名詞為 pronoun reference:
 
  Singular Plural  
  It They  
  She/He They  
  This These  
  That Those  
 
這些代名詞本身所表示的意義相當模糊, 除非它們前有所指, 而前所指的人物或事件會用比較確實的名詞, 名詞片語, 或名詞子句表示. 現在舉個例子來說明:
 
For many years in the United States most undergraduate students were eighteen to twenty-two years old. They[1] attended college full-time, lived in a dormitory on campus, and expected many extras from their colleges, not just classes. But things began to change in the 1970s and are very different now. Today, these traditional students are less than one quarter of all college students. These days the nontraditional students are the majority; they[2] are different from traditional undergraduates in several ways. They[3] are older. Many attend college part-time because they have families and jobs. Most live off campus, not in dorms. These nontraditional students don’t want the extras that colleges usually offer. They[4] aren’t interested in the sports, entertainment, religious groups, and museums that are part of most U.S. colleges. They[5] [.1] want mainly good-quality classes, day or night, at a low cost. They[6] also hope for easy parking, short registration lines, and polite service. Both time and money are important to them[7].

(Resource: Interactions 2. by Kirn and Hartmann. McGraw-Hill. 2002. 4th ed.)

  They1:  refers to undergraduate students
  they2:   refers to nontraditional students
  They3:  refers to nontraditional students
  They4:  refers to nontraditional students
  They5:  refers to nontraditional students
  They6:  refers to nontraditional students
  them7:  refers to nontraditional students
此短文內的名詞係指大學生, 但此處所指的大學生有三種: undergraduates, traditional students, nontraditional students. 但每一個they都各有所指(綠色斜體字). 只是到了第5,6,7they由於仍然在列舉nontraditional students traditional students的不同之處, 所以這三個they仍指nontraditional students. 由於每個指定代名詞所指定的名詞或稱前置詞(antecedent)都很清楚, 所以用一下指定代名詞這種不具明確意思的虛詞也不會妨礙內容的可讀性. 更何況如果全部用nontraditional students你會發現用字累贅, 這會影響你的用字遣詞 (vocabulary word usage). 因此在寫作時, 何時用虛詞, 何時用確切的字或片語(specific and precise noun, noun phrase), 需要掌控得宜, 而這須要從多讀多寫的練習中得到改進.
 
下面的短文--電影報告, 在連貫性方面掌控得宜, 所以是一篇佳作:
This movie is about how one can struggle with honest and caring heart to be accepted by a society he longs to belong to. A human couple adopted a mouse named Stuart. Surely, Stuart became their family member. The Littles’ own child named George was longing for a little human brother; however, he was disappointed when he saw Stuart was a mouse. So he did not welcome Stuart at the first sight. Even the house pet - Snowball the cat tried to kill Stuart because the mouse obtained too much care from this family. The cats in the alley chased after him and tried to kill him, but Stuart luckily ran away from the murder. Once he almost killed himself in a remote boat racing for his brother - George. Stuart overcame those difficulties with courage and love. He built up a strong affection with this family and the story ended up with the family’s happy reunion.

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