Patterns of organisation (or patterns of text) refer to the way that a text is organised above sentence level. Texts are made up of predictable patterns of structures, grammar and vocabulary. Identifying the structure of an essay or an article is one way of understanding its purpose.

There are a number of common patterns of text in academic writing, including:

• Chronological
• Compare-contrast
• Cause-effect
• Problem-solution
• Claim-counterclaim

Patterns of organisation are used to link ideas together. For example:

Ferrari and BMW are both car manufacturers. Each is a European firm, but BMW models are much more common, whereas those of Ferraris are less so. While Ferraris are typically much faster and much more expensive, BMWs are considered more reliable.

This example provides some features of language that compares and contrasts two manufacturers of cars. The writer makes use of pre-modifiers, such as both and each. Moreover, the writer also uses the conjunctions but, whereas and while to signal a contrast and makes use of adjectives and adverbs to compare the cars (for example faster, much more common).

Longer texts, such as an academic article, may make several arguments and would therefore include several patterns of organisation. 

Coherence and Cohesion in Texts

• Coherence is concerned with how a writer guides the reader through the argument using logical connectors.
• Cohesion refers to the way that texts use grammar and vocabulary to 'stick' ideas together.

Coherence

It is the writer's responsibility to guide the reader through the text. One way of doing this is by using signposting phrases. A signpost is a phrase that a speaker or a writer uses to indicate different stages or parts of a text, whether written or spoken. Signposts can be divided into two broad categories: major signposts and linking words and phrases.

A major signpost is a phrase that indicates the structure of an argument:

• The aim of this study is to ….
• One way of exploring this is ...
• The purpose of this essay is to….
• In this essay, I will argue ...
• This paper critically examines ...
• The above discussion raises some interesting questions.
• This paper begins by …. It will then go on to …. Finally, ….
• This chapter reviews the literature ….
• In conclusion, ….

Linking words and phrases may include both coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and adverbs.

• For this reason, ...
• However, ...
• Generally, ...
• Firstly, ...
• Secondly, ...
• Finally, ...
• Nevertheless, ...
• Moreover, ...

 

Cohesion

There are number of ways to connect ideas to each other:

• Grammatical cohesion refers to grammatical features. For example, articles (zero, a / an or the) can be used to signal the reader the first mention of an idea e.g. a group, (one of many groups) and the later mentions the group, (when the reader knows which specific group). Pronouns (e.g. it or they / them) are used to refer backwards (and sometimes forwards) to a noun or noun phrase, and can substitute for them.
• Lexical cohesion means the use of vocabulary, such as word families (e.g. analysis, analytical, analyse) or synonyms (words with a similar meaning in that context such as effect, result, consequence, outcome) to refer to the same idea.

Cohesive Devices

A writer can link ideas in a number of other ways. For example, some patterns of organisation, such as problem-solution, may be connected by what are called summary nouns, such as "challenge, danger, risk, need" to indicate a problem, or a "approach, response or way" to indicate a solution. Other patterns of organisation, such as cause-effect may be linked by verbs, for example "results in" or "leads to."