Author: Águeda Delgado-Ponce – Translation: Erika-Lucia Gonzalez-Carrion
When we start writing an article, a permanent worry is the quantity and quality of the information that we are going to disseminate and if our contribution will contribute in some way to an advance in science. However, necessary attention is not always given to the type of text presented, to its organization, coherence and balance, essential for its comprehension.
The scientific article, avobe everything, is an argumentative-expository text that is guided for its characteristics: coherence, cohesion and adaptation. Without them, we could not understand the information presented.
The manuscript will have a union depending on its coherence, not only in what is said, but also on what it is intended to be said. In order to have a coherent text with our manuscript we should pay attention to the following aspects:
- The article covers the same theme that is developed without neither contradictions nor repetitions of the given information.
- Main and secondary ideas are structured in a logical and clear way, for which we can be helped by the distribution into paragraphs.
- It transmits the communicative intention of the author.
With the aim that the text fulfills its communicative objective, it is necessary that the ideas that integrate it are not only structured and organized, but also that have cohesion among them. For that reason, the main aspect is to keep a reference and use properly the discoursive marks that contribute to articulate the discourse and relate different parts.
- To organize the discourse: First of all, then, on one hand, on the other hand, as a conclusion, to finish…
- To link the ideas by establishing relations of mutual implications: moreover, also, even more… (of addition); however, nevertheless… (of opposition); for that, consequently… (cause/consequence).
- To express the view point of the sender: Regarding to, in respect to, in my opinion, from my viewpoint, certainly, evidently, of course…
Finally, despite of the fact that it has been said in other posts, it is necessary for the manuscript to be adapted to the communicative situation (usage field, destinataries, communicative intention…), in this sense, to de adapted to the journal it is presented, fulfilling its guidelines and to be inside its thematic issues.
The quality of the manuscript is not only in the research presented. In order to fulfill a communicative purpose and disseminate the study, it should attend to the commented properties, by presenting a coherent study, with a complete and balanced sense.