English Grammar & Punctuationusually ages 9–11

Cohesion within paragraphs

Use cohesive devices within a paragraph — including pronouns, adverbials (then, after that, firstly), and synonyms — to link sentences and build a coherent flow of ideas

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Replace repeated nouns with pronouns or synonyms to maintain cohesion without ambiguity, e.g. 'The explorer found a cave. She examined it carefully'
Use adverbials of sequence (firstly, then, next, finally) and cause (therefore, as a result, consequently) to connect ideas within a paragraph
Identify where cohesion breaks down in a paragraph and insert appropriate linking devices to improve the flow

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Try this together

When your child writes a paragraph, do the sentences flow together smoothly — using words like "however", "after this", or "in contrast" to link ideas, rather than every sentence starting with "And then"?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Organising Writing into Paragraphsages 7–10Cohesion within paragraphs requires paragraphing knowledge; learners must organise text into paragraphs before learning to build cohesion within them

Pronouns for clarityages 7–9Pronoun cohesion is a key cohesive device; prior work on choosing pronouns for clarity feeds directly into paragraph-level cohesion

Cohesion within paragraphsthis skill · ages 9–11

Unlocks

Linking paragraphs with adverbialsages 9–11Linking across paragraphs builds on within-paragraph cohesion; learners must achieve cohesion within paragraphs before linking between them

Paragraph Cohesionages 10–11Extended cohesive devices builds on cohesion within paragraphs

Cohesion and Transitions Across Writingages 11–14Text-level cohesion extends KS2 cohesive devices within paragraphs

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E5LA04high confidenceYear 5 · Language

understand how texts can be made cohesive by using the starting point of a sentence or paragraph to give prominence to the message and to guide the reader through the text

AC9E6LA04high confidenceYear 6 · Language

understand that cohesion can be created by the intentional use of repetition, and the use of word associations

AC9E3LA04medium confidenceYear 3 · Language

understand that paragraphs are a key organisational feature of the stages of written texts, grouping related information together

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

EN2-UARL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 2

EN2-CWT-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 2

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E6LA04high confidenceEnglish · Level 6 · Language strand

VC2E5LA04high confidenceEnglish · Level 5 · Language strand

VC2E3LA04medium confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Language strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Adjective Order in Sentencesages 9–10 Brackets and dashes for parenthesisages 9–10 Commas Before Joining Wordsages 9–11 Commas to avoid ambiguityages 9–10

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