Signposting and Cohesion: Creating a Reader-Friendly Text

Cultures differ on their expectations for the roles writers and readers take in relation to a text. According to John Hinds (1987), some cultures (like the US) favor “writer-responsible” writing, in which the writer has the primary responsibility for making sure that ideas are clearly communicated to the reader, while other cultures (like Japan) favor “reader-responsible” writing, in which the reader is responsible for making sense out of the writer’s ideas. While it is likely that all cultures use both styles in different contexts, it is undeniable that in US academic writing, writerresponsible text is preferred. In this handout, we share strategies for writing writer-responsible texts through the use of signposting (language that creates a route for a reader through a text, such as forecasting statements, topic sentences, and conjunctive adverbs) and cohesion (such as the movement from given-to-new information in sentences and the use of demonstrative pronouns).