An Analysis On IELTS Writing From The Perspective Of Cohesion And Coherence

IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System, available worldwide. It is the most widely recognized highest assessment of English language proficiency. Task 2 of the Writing Module is assessed in terms of four criteria, one of which is Coherence and Cohesion. However, due to the way English writing has been traditionally taught, Chinese candidates generally lack a basic concept of it and display some common weaknesses regarding the use of reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion, resulting in unsatisfactory scores.Aiming to increase Chinese candidate's discourse awareness and competence in this aspect, based on the assessing criteria for Coherence and Cohesion, this paper mainly employs Halliday and Hasan's taxonomy of cohesive devices and related theory of themes and rhemes and Mark Morgan' theory of organization to identify the linguistic characteristics of a successful essay and a poor one in terms of coherence and cohesion from three aspects: overall organization, the thematic structure and the use of cohesion devices.The analysis on the overall organization of the samples manifests the structure of IELTS writing should show a clear linear development from introduction, through the body and on to the conclusion. The analysis on thematic structure of the samples reveals the choice of the theme should be made properly and logically as it has an important role in constructing meaning. The analysis on cohesive signals of the samples manifests that cohesion should be evident at all levels and it has a significant impact on the readability and clarity of essay as a whole. The study shows clearly that good cohesion reinforces coherence, and bad cohesion destroys it.