A model for the analysis of cohesion and information management in published writing in three disciplines
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This study proposes a model to compare cohesion and information management in samples of professional writing in three disciplines (counseling psychology, biology, and history). When tested with the chi-square procedure, the comparisons revealed significant differences in the cohesion and information management systems of the three sample passages (criterion: p [less than].01). The psychology passage had significantly higher cohesive density than the biology and history passages, with the biology passage significantly higher than the history passage. Significant differences were also found in the types of lexical ties in each passage. The psychology and biology passages were proportionately similar in the use of repetition, synonymy, and collocation, and significantly different from the history passage in the numbers of these types. The history passage used proportionately fewer repetitions and synonyms and more collocations and derivations. No significant differences were found in comparisons of the numbers of single and dual/multiple chains in the three passages, but comparisons of the relative numbers of words in single chains revealed significant differences in all except the comparison of biology and history. Of the 160 comparisons of proportional use of types of lexical ties in the themes of sentences, 77 were significant and 54 others approached significance. Of the 160 comparisons of proportional use of types of lexical ties in the rhemes, only three were not significantly different. All but six comparisons in rhemes were significantly different at the .001 level, a clear indication that there are very large differences in the way in which the authors of these three passages presented new information. These findings suggest that the descriptive model proposed in this study should be useful in comparing representative samples of writing in different disciplines and should lead to an understanding of the nature of writing that will benefit teachers of writing across the curriculum and teachers of reading in the content areas.
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