Coherence, Continuity, and Cohesion

Theoretical Foundations for Document Design

Kim Sydow Campbell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136689154
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Filología
• Subtopic: Estudios de comunicación

There is a need for general theoretical principles describing/explaining effective design -- those which demonstrate "unity" and enhance comprehension and usability. Theories of cohesion from linguistics and of comprehension in psychology are likely sources of such general principles. Unfortunately, linguistic approaches to discourse unity have focused exclusively on semantic elements such as synonymy or anaphora, and have ignored other linguistic elements such as syntactic parallelism and phonological alliteration. They have also overlooked the non-linguistic elements -- visual factors such as typography or color, and auditory components such as pitch or duration. In addition, linguistic approaches have met with criticism because they have failed to explain the relationship between semantic cohesive elements and coherence. On the other hand, psychological approaches to discourse comprehension have considered the impact of a wider range of discourse elements -- typographical cuing of key terms to enhance comprehension -- but have failed to provide general theoretical explanations for such observations. This volume uses Gestalt theory to provide general principles for predicting one aspect of coherence -- that of continuity -- across the entire range of discourse elements, and also to outline the relationship between cohesion and coherence. The theoretical core of this book argues that the cognitive principles that explain why humans "sense" unity in a succession of sounds (a whole musical piece) or in a configuration of visual shapes (a complete object) are the basis of principles which explain why we "sense" unity in oral, written, and electronically produced documents.

Introduction:
A Research Agenda

‘Sense’ has two senses, one perceptual and the other linguistic. We have tried to take care of them both, for we feel the two are not as different as they are sometimes made out to he.

—Miller and Johnson-Laird (1976, p. vi)

The quote above from the preface of Miller and Johnson-Laird's landmark book, Language and Perception, led me to formulate the theoretical core of this book—that the cognitive principles which explain why humans ‘sense’ unity in a succession of sounds (which therefore constitute a whole musical piece) or in a configuration of visual shapes (which therefore constitute a whole object) are the basis of principles that explain why we ‘sense’ unity in a string of sentences or a series of computer screens (which therefore constitute a whole text or discourse). More specifically, I will argue that one aspect of discourse coherence, continuity, is analogous to visual and auditory unity, as studied by the Gestalt school of psychologists. In addition, I argue that Gestalt principles like proximity and similarity describe how cohesion is produced through the use of the full range of discourse elements (e.g., from white space and typography to beeps and pauses to parallel syntax to synonymous lexical items and deictic terms). Thus, I believe cohesion produces continuity, one type of coherence, in discourse. More generally, then, it is my premise in this book that humans extend the use of cognitive perceptual principles like that of proximity, originally used in response to interaction with visual and auditory phenomena, to the more complex, relatively late-developing cognitive task of discourse comprehension and production.

The notion that discourse unity might somehow be analogous to auditory and visual perceptions of unity appealed to me mainly because of my practical experience as a technical communication teacher and a scientific editor. In particular, I regularly comment on the design of communication, including the auditory or visual qualities of an oral or written discourse along with its linguistic qualities. As one simple example, I often note that more attention to page layout or design would create a more clearly unified, coherent, and usable discourse (e.g., placing a diagram next to relevant prose in a technical manual). As I document later in this chapter, the practical importance of page design is well recognized by other technical communication professionals.

Although page design might appear to some to be of only trivial intellectual interest, I believe that its influence on a human being's sense of discourse unity must reflect the lawfulness of the human mind. Therefore, I conclude that, like a theory of language, a theory of discourse unity that could account for the unifying effects of visual and auditory as well as linguistic elements might be of great intellectual interest as a contribution to a theory of mind or cognition.

Unfortunately, my training as a linguist offered me no theoretical framework within which I could understand how the full range of elements (e.g., visual as well as linguistic components) are involved in creating unified texts or discourse. Not surprisingly, the unifying role of non-linguistic elements has not often been considered within linguistics and, in terms of linguistic elements, the unifying role of phonological and syntactic elements has been largely ignored in favor of semantic elements. Although I found that psycholinguistic research has indeed considered the effects of non-semantic and even non-linguistic elements, that research provided no general theory or explanation for why those elements enhanced the unity and coherence of discourse. As a consequence, I found no one theory that provided a satisfactory explanation of the relationship among these unifying linguistic and non-linguistic elements. Furthermore, no one theory provided a satisfactory explanation of the role of these elements in establishing coherence.

Therefore, my theoretical knowledge provided no way to account for my intuitive, practical experience until I read Miller and Johnson-Laird's (1976) work, which argues that a significant part of the semantic component of language is founded on perceptual concepts (e.g., the perceptual concepts of “motion” and “direction” are the semantic foundation of ascend [motion up], pivot [motion around], and depart [motion away]). These authors, however, concentrated on lexical or word meaning. It is my goal in this book to extend their general assumption about the relationship of perception and language to the level of discourse. The recognition of the relationship between perception and language inspired me to explore the utility of Gestalt theory (which provides perceptual principles describing how auditory and visual unity is achieved) as a theoretical foundation for understanding the role of and relationships among all discourse elements in achieving discourse unity and coherence.

The remainder of this chapter expands the preceding discussion in order to justify the need for basic research that establishes a new theory of coherence and cohesion. This basic research, in turn, may provide a theoretical foundation for further applied research involving the design of communication. First, I demonstrate the importance of within fields outside linguistics and document the recognition for further research in this area. Second, I demonstrate that no linguistic or psycholinguistic research has been able to account for the unifying effects of both linguistic and non-linguistic discourse elements and for the role of these elements in establishing coherence. Third, I clarify the terminology used in the remainder of this book and outline the goals and design of the following chapters.

DOCUMENT DESIGN IN TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION

Shriver (1989a) defined as “the theory and practice of creating comprehensible, usable, and persuasive texts” (p. 316). Within the field of technical and scientific communication, the importance of (also called “information design”) has been increasingly recognized by teachers, professionals, and researchers since the 1980s. As Benson and Burnett (1992) noted:

An increasing number of teachers of technical, business, and professional communication are integrating information about visual design into their classrooms. In addition to these pedagogical progressives, workplace practitioners have begun to recognize the need to apply research findings about effective designs of visible language, (p. 87)

Technical communication pedagogy reflects this emphasis in textbooks of the 1990s. For instance, the title of Mathes and Stevenson's (1991) textbook is Designing Technical Reports, and Houp and Pearsall's (1992) textbook has one of its five core parts headed, “in Technical Writing,” which is comprised of three chapters and 154 pages. As Anderson (1987) wrote in his textbook chapter, “Designing Pages,” “You build your written messages out of visual elements. These visual elements are dark marks printed on a lighter background: words and sentences and paragraphs; drawing, graphs and tables. They are seen by readers before they are read and understood” (p. 448). Advanced courses in technical communication are also teaching students the importance of. For example, Rude's (1991) textbook offers the following advice to technical editing students:

An editor cares about format because format is functional. Format influences how well a reader uses and understands a document. The five main functions of format … [are] to meet reader expectations, to motivate readers, to provide access to selected parts of the document, to aid the readers in comprehension, and to facilitate its continued use. (p. 288)

Professional technical and scientific communication practice also reflects this emphasis on. For instance, Benson (1985), a research associate in the Design Center of the American Institutes for Research, advised professional communicators: “[t]o design a document well, you need to imagine what linguistic and visual organizers will help readers understand how the text is structured” (p. 36). In addition, the Society for Technical Communication's professional journal, Technical Communication, has published special issues on (e.g., Moves into the Next Decade, edited by Shriver, 1989c).

Professional communicators have also promoted the importance of research in the area of. As IBM's Brooks (1991) wrote:

most [technical communicators] would probably agree that text set in all uppercase letters is harder to read than mixed-case text. That a well-designed serif type is easier to read than sans serif. But are you really sure why, or do you just know that? If you're challenged on a question like that, it helps to be able to back up your opinion with published research results or studies, (p. 183)

Shriver's (1989a) review of research in the 1980s includes the following questions as part of the agenda for the 1990s:

• What are the principles underlying the visual design of effective text? Do some visual information structures meet readers' needs better than others?

• What is the role of writers' knowledge in? Subject-matter knowledge? Linguistic knowledge? Perceptual knowledge? Strategic knowledge? Rhetorical knowledge?

• Which text-evaluation methods are best suited for judging text quality? … Can we develop more sensitive text-evaluat ion methods than are currently available? … (p. 325)

Thus, despite the obvious importance of within the field of technical and scientific communication, there is a perceived need for more research that illuminates the principles describing effective design and takes into account the various types of knowledge writers and readers bring to the task of communication production and comprehension. This research is important as a means of providing general principles that form a foundation for evaluating text quality in pedagogical and professional practice. General principles are crucial for providing novice communicators with the knowledge required to diagnose rather than simply detect problems with the texts they produce (Flower, Hayes, Carey, Schriver, & Stratman, 1986, p. 47).

RESEARCH ON COHERENCE AND COHESION

One logical place to look for systematic, general principles describing how unity or coherence is established in discourse is, of course, linguistic and psychological theories of coherence and cohesion. The importance of unity or connectedness as an aspect of coherence is universally recognized (e.g., as noted by Hatakeyama, Petöfi, and Sözer's, 1985, review of research on coherence in textlinguistics or by the title of Charolles and Ehrlich's, 1991, review of research on coherence, “Aspects of Textual Continuity”). To begin, I first define coherence and then take up the question of whether previous research can provide the general principles needed to answer the research questions mentioned earlier from document design.

Halliday and Hasan (1976) wrote, “[a] text is a passage of discourse which is coherent in these two regards: it is coherent with respect to the context of situation …; and it is coherent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive” (p. 23). Similarly, Hatakeyama et al. (1985) distinguished two types of textual unity or connectedness: co-textual and con-textual unity. Coherence (contextual unity) involves connections between the discourse and the context in which it occurs. For example, consider the following excerpt from a proposal written by a group of professional civil engineers:

Example 1.1.

Mr. Krishan Saigal, P.E., will serve as Lead Engineer. Mr. Saigal's primary tasks will include:

• Plan and provide direction for technical work elements.

• Coordinate technical direction of subcontractors.

• Assist in coordinating and disseminating project-related information to the Project Team ….

Mr. Saigal will also serve as Construction Manager for the Project Team, with the following primary responsibilities: (SCS Engineers, 1991, p. 2–2)

Note that, although it shows some signs of connectedness, it does not constitute a “whole” text. More specifically, although describing both of Mr. Saigal's duties consecutively (i.e., with no intervening, extraneous material) establishes some coherence, the excerpt lacks the quality of completeness: in other words, the completion of the last sentence, which should include a list of duties related to the role of Construction Manager. The reader expects completeness in a proposal like the one this excerpt comes from. Thus, coherence describes the relationship between the discourse and the context in which it occurs.

Cohesion (co-textual unity) involves connections within the discourse. As one example of cohesion, in Example 1.1, note ...