Writing Academic English 4th Edition

Coherence

Chapter 2 IUnityandCoherence 21

Paragraph 1

BecausetheInternetmakestheworlda smallerplace,thevalueofhaving

a commonlanguageis greatlyincreased.Thequestionis-whichlanguage?

BecausetheInternetgrewupintheUnitedStates,thelargestpercentageofits

contentis nowinEnglish.BillGates,Microsoft'spresident,believesthatEnglish

willremainvaluablefora longtimeasacommonlanguageforinternational

communication.Hiscompanyspends$200milliona yeartranslatingsoftware

intootherlanguages.Hesays,"UnlessyoureadEnglishpassablywell,youmiss

outonsomeoftheInternetexperience."Someday,softwaremaybeavailable

toinstantlytranslatebothwrittenandspokenlanguagesowellthattheneed

foranycommonlanguagecoulddecline.Thatdayis decadesaway,however,

becauseflawlessmachinetranslationis a verytoughproblem.Computerspelling

checkersalsoexistforvariouslanguages.Softwarethatdoescrudestranslations

alreadyexists.It is usefulif allyouaretryingtodois understandthegeneralidea

ofsomethingyouseeonyourcomputerscreen.However,if youaretryingto

negotiatea contractordiscussa scientificsubjectwheredetailsareimportant,

machinetranslationistotallyuseless(Gates).6

Paragraph 2

Evenwhenyoutrytobepolite,it is easytodothewrongthinginadvertently7

ina newculture.Forexample,whensomeoneoffersyoufoodora beveragein

theUnitedStates,acceptit thefirsttimeit is offered.If yousay,"No,thankyou"

becauseit is politetodeclinethefirstoneortwooffersinyourculture,youcould

becomeveryhungryandthirstyintheUnitedStates.There,a hostthinksthat

"no"means"no"andwillusuallynotofferagain.MealsintheUnitedStatesare

usuallymoreinformalthanmealsinothercountries,andthetimesofmealsmay

bedifferent.AlthoughNorthAmericansareusuallyverydirectinsocialmatters,

therearea fewoccasionswhentheyarenot.If a NorthAmericansays,"Please

dropbysometime,"hemayormaynotwantyoutovisithiminhishome.Your

cluethatthismaynotbearealinvitationis theword"sometime."Insomeareas

oftheUnitedStates,peopledonotexpectyoutovisitthemunlessyouhave

aninvitationfora specificdayandtime.InotherareasoftheUnitedStates,

however,"droppingby"is a friendly,neighborlygesture.Idiomsareoftendifficult

fornewcomerstounderstand.

Anotherelementofa goodparagraphiscoherence.TheLatinverbcoheremeans

"holdtogether."Forcoherenceinwriting,thesentencesmustholdtogether;thatis,

themovementfromonesentencetothenextmustbelogicalandsmooth.Theremust

benosuddenjumps.Eachsentenceshouldflowsmoothlyintothenextone.

(^5) crude:rough,unfinished
6Gates,Bill."OneuniversallanguageforallontheInternet."BillGates:Technolo!!y.Syndicated
column,1977.
7inadvertentty:accidentally