Thus when the positive side on one water molecule comes near the negative side of another water molecule, they attract each other and form a bond. Cohesion can be measured and verified through rules of grammar and semantics though measuring coherence is rather difficult. In a water molecule, the two hydrogen atoms align themselves along one side of the oxygen atom, with the result being that the oxygen side has a partial negative charge and the side with the hydrogen atoms has a partial positive charge. Coherence is a property decided by the reader whereas cohesion is a property of the text achieved by the writer making use of different tools like synonyms, verb tenses, time references etc. Molecular layout of liquid water molecules The order in which information is presented in a text is an important factor in determining how coherent it is likely to be for a reader. Opposite magnetic poles attract one another much like positively charged atoms attract negatively charged atoms in water molecules. If a text communicates its message clearly and concisely, it can be said to have coherence. If you've played with bar magnets you will know that the north pole of one magnet will repel the north pole of another magnet, but it will attract the south pole of another magnet. More precisely, the positive and negative charges of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that make up water molecules makes them attracted to each other. Water is sticky and clumps together into drops because of its cohesive properties, but chemistry and electricity are involved at a more detailed level to make this possible. Water is highly cohesive-it is the highest of the non-metallic liquids. Sources/Usage: Some content may have restrictions. Although you may have heard of a 'skin' where water meets the air, this is not really an accurate description, as there is nothing other than water in the drop. On Earth, the effect of gravity flattens this ideal sphere into the drop shape we see. For water, this state happens when a water molecule is surrounded on all sides by other water molecules, which creates a sphere or ball (perfectly round if it was in outer space). The natural form of a water drop occurs during the 'lowest energy state', the state where the atoms in the molecule are using the least amount of energy.

It turns out that this surface tension is the result of the tendency of water molecules to attract one another. If you just look at the picture of the water drop sitting of the leaf, you might think the water drop has a 'skin' holding it into a sort of flattened sphere (although there is nothing flat about a water drop in outer space). Adhesion and cohesion are winning the battle so far, as the drops are sticking to the pine needles. Gravity is working against both adhesion and cohesion, trying to pull the water drop downward. Also noticeable in this picture is the effect that gravity has on the water drops. In the picture of pine needles above, the water droplets are stuck to the end of the pine needles-an example of the property of adhesion. Schmidt, National Park ServiceĪ water drop is composed of water molecules that like to stick together-an example of the property of cohesion. Some grammatical mistakes are also found such as the plural forms, active-passive voice.Sources/Usage: Public Domain. The result shows that the abstracts analyzed have not satisfactorily achieved coherence though some cohesive devices like reference, conjunctions, ellipsis which are used to link one sentence to the other. Since it is a qualitative research, the data were in the level of words or sentences. Several abstracts of the students’ final projects were selected randomly to be analyzed. Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical linking within a text or sentence that holds a text together and gives it meaning. Its objectives are (1) to reveal the micro-level coherence, how each sentence is connected to the other to make logical relations and (2) to discover the macro-level coherence, the right use of cohesive devices like conjunction, reference, substitution or ellipsis so as to make the whole text coherent. This article attempts to reveal the coherence of the abstracts of the final project reports of the undergraduate students of PGRI University Semarang, Indonesia. However, many of the students still find difficulties in making their writing coherent due to their limitation in understanding the cohesive devices and their application in their writing. Since it plays an important role in grasping the information of the whole research report, the writing of the abstract, therefore should be concise and the logical relation among sentences is clear, coherent and cohesive. An abstract is the gist of a research report which has the purpose to allow the reader to get the main information without reading the whole document.

Coherence vs cohesion