Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

particularly effective.
Some researchers, for example Tárnyiková (2002), consider even the 
morphological categories of ‘tense’, ‘voice’ and ‘mood’ to be important cohesive 
devices. In terms of tense, it is the consistent use of a particular tense in the verdict 
reports that helps the reader to understand the sequence of events, for example 
the past tense is used to give an account of the murder itself in the reports under 
investigation. The consistent use of the past simple makes these accounts close to 
a narrative and at the same time enhances their factual/informative character. In 
the verdict reports the identity of the killer is known and can therefore be clearly 
stated. It is mainly the constant use of the active voice which moves the agent to 
the foreground and enables the assigning of responsibility for the victim’s death 
to a particular person and for him/her to be ‘pointed at’ in the discourse. There 
is no reason for the passive voice because in these reports the agent must be 
clearly identified – he/she represents ‘evil’ as opposed to ‘good’ as represented 
by the 
victim. The passive would have the opposite effect, i.e. the agent would be 
suppressed and the result would be ‘a depersonalised text’ (ibid.: 36).