Coordination means joining two or more “equal” grammatical forms into a longer unit. Often, though not always, coordinated units are joined by a coordinator (also called a coordinating conjunction): for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (FANBOYS)

Writers use coordination to link ideas logically (meaning), reduce word count (efficiency), and create flow (style).

When using coordination, novice writers make two mistakes: comma splices (using a comma to connect two complete sentences) and faulty parallelism (unequal structures such as “Becoming a monk required a vow of poverty and having to surrender all worldly possessions”). See the website for additional examples, discrimination exercises, and fluency aims.

The following sentences are examples of the effective use of coordination:

• Augustinian monks endured the torments of hunger, thirst, cold, and sleeplessness. (coordinated adjectives)
• Martin’s father married up and achieved a modest success in business. (coordinated verbs or “verb phrases”)
• They worried that women who left the convent or received visitors there opened themselves to sexual temptation. (coordinated verbs)
• Becoming a monk required a vow of poverty and the surrender of all worldly possessions. (coordinated direct objects)
• A violent thunderstorm burst over him, and a bolt of lightning knocked him to the ground. (coordinated sentences)