Unity in Writing

I often talk to my beginning writing students about achieving unity and coherence in their writing. While these concepts are easily definable, their essence isn't. In other words, it's easier said than done. Unity means that all the sentences in your article or essay or story clearly relate to the controlling idea of the piece. Everything has a reason for being there, which is to build on and embellish the controlling idea. Coherence means that all ideas progress smoothly and logically throughout the work. This involves having seamless transitions from one segment of your essay or story to the next and having a sequence of ideas or events that logically follow one another. This all sounds very mechanical and routine, but pulling it off is not as easy as it seems. When you read something that is excellently written, you are often not aware of the techniques the writer has used. They are seamlessly sewn into the fabric of the work. You just know that you've read something that is very smooth and eloquent, but you may not be able to say why it is so. This is the essence of unity and coherence. It's the behind-the-scenes work of the writer that pulls a piece together and makes it appear, on its surface, to be effortless writing. To achieve this with your own writing, you have to work it over and over until it sounds right to you, never giving up until you hit that sweet spot when you know you finally have it right. It often involves tedious and time-consuming editing and rewriting, working with your writing until it's as perfect as you can make it. And finally, when your essay or article or story "hangs" together from beginning to end and reads like a harmonious whole, you know you have achieved that elusive quality of unity.