To write a good text, several elements must be considered. It is not enough to have a good idea, it is necessary to master the Portuguese language for these ideas to be well elaborated and, therefore, understandable to the reader. One of the indispensable factors for writing is called textual coherence, without which a text loses all its meaning.
But what is consistency? Well, coherence is related to the meanings of the essay, that is, it concerns its argumentative organization and its intelligibility. There are some basic principles for an essay to be considered coherent, and one of them is the principle of non-contradiction. If you start your text by stating something, hopefully that point of view will be defended to the end, isn't it? Otherwise, your ideas will be disjointed and deprived of meaning, an unwanted effect on any non-literary text.
Now that you know what coherence is, you should also know that there are types of coherence. These types of coherence contribute to the construction of the overall coherence of a text. Are they:
Syntactic coherence:Know grammatical rules as not that no one writes them all. Got confused? So it is, no one writes like that, even if they don't know all the grammar rules. Syntactic coherence is responsible for leaving each element of the sentence in its place. You may have noticed that although you didn't know what syntactic coherence is, you've always used it, haven't you?
Semantic coherence: Semantics is the part of Grammar that studies the meaning of words, so for each situation there is the right word to be used. Semantic coherence guarantees the logical development of ideas, that is, its function is to collaborate in the construction of harmonious and contradiction-free arguments. I like red, but I don't like red very much. Was it meaningless? It is because the semantic coherence was lacking.
Thematic coherence: Your teacher or teacher passed on a certain writing topic. What you should do? Prepare a text developing ideas about the proposed topic, right? All ideas must be relevant, that is, they must be relevant to the development of the theme. If the theme is “Freedom of expression”, you are not going to write about “Repression of rights”, right?
There are six types of coherence: syntactic, semantic, thematic, pragmatic, stylistic and generic. They contribute to the overall coherence of the text.
Pragmatic consistency: First, what is pragmatics? It is the part of Linguistics that analyzes the way we use language with our interlocutors and also the influence of the communicational context. You see, when you ask a question, according to pragmatic consistency, your interlocutor will give you an answer. When you ask someone for something, it's pragmatically inconsistent for you to give an order at the same time, right?
Stylistic coherence: is related to the variety you chose to write the text. If you start your text adopting the standard variety, it is consistent that it be written to the end preserving this record. It makes no sense to use cultured language and colloquial language in the same text, unless you are writing a literary text.
Generic consistency: concerns the choice of textual genre. Every genre has distinct characteristics that must be preserved: for example, if you want to advertise something, you already know that the classified genre is the most suitable. By choosing the genre, you know how to structure your text, as well as make pertinent vocabulary choices. If the intention is to tell a story, you will certainly opt for the short story or chronicle genres, as these will suit your proposal.
A good text does not compromise consistency. It's no use mastering all the grammar rules, knowing everything about textual types and genres, properly using the elements that guarantee cohesion to the text if you don't present to your reader harmonious ideas, free from contradictions. To help you with the challenging task of writing, remember the types of coherence described above and good studies!
By Luana Castro
Graduated in Letters
