Unity, support and coherence
These are three important aspects of writing in English. A well-written piece will contain each of these characteristics.
Unity
A piece of writing that has unity contains sentences that all relate to the main idea and supports that main idea.
For me, a cat is just as good of a pet as a dog. When I come home from work or school, both my dog and my cat greet me. My cat is also just as friendly and loyal as my dog is. Despite the common stereotype, you can teach cats tricks as well. For example, my cat knows how to do a high-five!
As you can see, every sentence in the paragraph above is clearly related to the main idea of both cats and dogs are good pets.
Support
Every piece of writing must have ideas that are supported with specific examples. These are called supporting details.
One reason why I dislike driving cars is that traffic tickets are expensive. For example, just the other day, I was driving on the highway when a police officer stopped me for speeding. I had to pay a $100 fine despite only driving five miles over the speed limit!
This paragraph contains three supporting details that help us understand the main idea.
Coherence
A piece of writing demonstrates coherence when all its parts are in an order that makes sense. When you arrange points that you make in your writing, the order should be from least important to most important. In other words, your least important detail or reason should be first, and your most important detail or reason should be last.
There are three main reasons why I am opposed to the death penalty crimes such as murder. First, it costs a lot of money and time for the many trials that must take place before the judge can give out the death penalty. Second, it is risky because innocent people have been given the death penalty before. Lastly, the death penalty does not deter murderers from committing crimes any more than long prison sentences do.
As you can see, the three reasons for opposing the death penalty are listed from the least important to the most important.
Exercise
Open the exercise to begin the activity. Follow the instructions in the document.