One question that students frequently ask during LARC writing conferences is "does my paper flow?" Flow derives from the sense that each sentence is connected to the sentences that surround it. When the sentences of a paper remind us of what has already been said and signal what is to come, the paper flows. Two key contributors to this quality are skillful repetition of key terms and clear pronoun references. To see a few simple flow creating techniques in action, let's look at a paragraph from Stuart Hirschberg's "The Rhetoric of Advertising" (The Anteater Reader, Spring 2001 Edition, page 93). Key terms and pronoun references are underlined.

"Ads for products that promise to guarantee their purchasers sex appeal, youth health, social acceptance, self-esteem, creativity, enlightenment, a happy family life, loving relationships, escape from boredom, vitality, and many other things [the subject of the sentence and the paragraph] frequently employ scare tactics to frighten or worry the consumer into purchasing the product to ease his or her fears. These ads [the ones described in the subject of the previous sentence] must first make the consumer dissatisfied with the self that exists. In this way [the "way" described in the previous two sentences], they [the ads--a pronoun reference] function exactly as do policy arguments [a reference to an earlier paragraph] that recommend solutions to problems with measurably harmful consequences. The difference [in contrast to the "policy arguments"] is that these kinds of ads actually are designed to arouse and then exploit the anxieties related to these problems."

You can see from the amount of underlining that the important elements in this paragraph have been threaded together very well. There are no gaps or loose ends. Compare this paragraph with one of your own. Do you see a difference in the level of coherence? Can this difference be attributed to the way in which you use key terms and pronouns? The above example illustrates a simple technique for building coherence. Master it and your grades will most certainly improve.