Foreign language instruction should begin in kindergarten

Coherence and cohesion distinguished

To understand the problem it is first necessary to understand a little of the difference between coherence and cohesion. Put simply, cohesion is the linking of your writing by using connecting words, while coherence is making sure your writing makes sense. The important point to note is that it is quite possible for a piece of writing to be cohesive but not very coherent.

The sample paragraph – cohesion

In some ways, this is a very good paragraph. There is a good range of vocabulary, the grammar is fine and it has lots of good cohesion structures which I have highlighted in red. There is much to learn here:

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  this/that/these/those are excellent cohesion structures as they link back to something that was already mentioned
  
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  repeating certain words (“performance” “companies”) also helps cohesion as it helps the reader make connections between sentences
  

The principal reason why some people take this view is that most multi-national companies certainly implement some specific policies to select employees for promotion. This point, of course, could be demonstrated by individuals who worked in those companies. For example, when I was working in an American company in Shanghai, before each fiscal year, I usually discussed with my supervisor in order to draw up a formal agreement, which was called ‘Performance and Development Review’. By doing this, the job performance I did for several months could be judged by my employer , which meant if it was a good outcome, I would be promoted immediately even though I was only a junior employee at that time.