Writing Tools #4: Making Words Stick
Posted under: On the Poynter Online web site this week, there are two resources to add to your writing arsenal. First, Roy Peter Clark has a new article, “Making Words Stick With Coherence and Cohesion.” It’s a method of determining whether your sentences follow a path from Old Knowledge –> New Knowledge. Think of this as a mini-outline for your paragraphs. As a web site developer, I would call this a user path. If I’m reorganizing information on a site, I would plot the path a user would take if I wanted him or her to take action.
Here’s an excerpt from his article:
“The writer can check for coherence by indexing the parts of the text, especially the beginning, middle and end, and then write subtitles for each part, like this:
Title: Making Words Stick
Coherence and cohesionCoherence means the big parts work together
How to test for it
Cohesion means the small parts work together
Idea behind cohesion
Examples of cohesion
How to test for itI’ve created above a little map for how to understand this article, and you can decide whether it reflects a coherent vision or not.
What coherence does for the big parts, cohesion does for the little parts. The practice of creating cohesion is guided by some theories on how people learn. The basic idea — scandalously simplified — is that new knowledge comes from old.”
(As a sidebar, there are a number of useful tools writers can find on Poynter Online. Clark had a live chat yesterday about this particular writing tool, and he hops online every couple of weeks.)
At the end of the article, he highlights some exercises. I’d encourage you to try out his “making words stick” exercises, then comment about what success you had. I’ve written on a couple of occasions about the 10,000 hour rule : Practice intentionally for 10,000 and you can master any activity.
Without a doubt, practicing the art of cohesiveness and coherence is an exercise that can help you to become a better writer.
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