Are You Overusing Linking Words? The Band-7 Coherence Test

The Coherence and Cohesion descriptors are explicit about this. Band 6 says cohesive devices may be used "faulty or mechanical." Band 7 asks for a range of devices "used appropriately," while tolerating "some under-/over-use." The word doing the work is appropriately. A linking word is scored on whether it signals a relationship that genuinely exists — not on whether it's there.

Which means memorising more connectors can lower your band rather than raise it.

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What over-linking looks like

Here is a paragraph carrying too much furniture:

Figure 1

Six sentences, six connectors

As written Connectors deleted

Firstly, some people argue that public money should go to essential services. Moreover, hospitals and roads are used by everyone. In addition, these services save lives. Furthermore, without good roads, the economy cannot function properly. On the other hand, culture is also important. Therefore, governments have a difficult decision.

Signals a relationship that exists Misdescribes the relationship it marks

Five of the six connectors are marked. Delete all of them and the sequence of ideas is unchanged.

Six sentences, six connectors. Now look at whether each one is telling the truth:

• Moreover — signals an additional, separate point. But "hospitals and roads are used by everyone" is not an additional argument; it's the reason for the first sentence.
• In addition — same problem again, and now a third connector in three sentences, all claiming to add something new.
• Furthermore — another addition signal, for what is actually an example.
• On the other hand — signals contrast with the previous sentence. It contrasts with the whole paragraph, so the reader briefly expects a contrast that isn't there.
• Therefore — signals a conclusion following logically. Nothing above establishes that the decision is difficult; it's asserted.

Five of six devices misdescribe the relationship they're marking. That's not cohesion — that's noise the reader has to see past.

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The same paragraph, connected properly

Figure 2

One connector, one colon, one linking phrase

6 1

Public money, the argument runs, should go first to services that everyone depends on. Hospitals and roads are used by the entire population, and when they fail the consequences are immediate: ambulances arrive late, goods do not reach markets, and the economic damage spreads well beyond the sector that was underfunded. From this perspective, spending on museums looks like a luxury pursued while essential infrastructure decays.

Connector count drops from six to one. Cohesion goes up, because the ideas now hold each other together.

One connector (and), one colon, one linking phrase (From this perspective). The paragraph is more cohesive than the first version, not less — because the ideas are now connected by content rather than by labels.

That's what the criterion is really asking. Cohesion is not a set of words you add. It's whether each sentence follows from the one before it.

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The deletion test

Here is a two-minute diagnostic you can run on any essay you've written.

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The three genuine cohesion upgrades

Once the padding is gone, these are the moves that actually raise Coherence and Cohesion.

1Referencing instead of repetition

Band 6 essays repeat nouns because pronouns feel risky:

2Information flow — old before new

Start a sentence with something already established, then add the new element. Do this consistently and the paragraph feels connected without any connectors at all.

3One clear topic per paragraph

Band 7 explicitly requires "a clear central topic in each paragraph." No connector can rescue a paragraph that's about two things. Say what your paragraph is about in one short phrase — if you need and, split it.

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So should you use linking words at all?

Yes — appropriately, which usually means fewer than you're using now.

A reasonable target for a 260-word essay: one connector per paragraph on average, plus the natural and, but, because, which that hold sentences together. Use them where the relationship genuinely needs marking — a real contrast, a real consequence, a real addition.

Example paragraphs were written to illustrate features described in the public band descriptors and have not been scored by an official examiner.

The uncomfortable part of the deletion test is that it's hard to run on your own writing — you know what you meant, so every connector feels justified. A reader who doesn't know your intentions sees it differently.