Using M. A. K. Halliday's and R. Hasan's concept of cohesion, a study examined statistical accounting of cohesive ties as a means of measuring and evaluating text coherence. Twelve grade twelve students were provided outlines on two topics and asked to write essays for each topic. One group of six students was familiar with the topics, the other group of six students unfamiliar. Cohesive patterning was determined, based on a cohesive analysis of each text. A MANOVA revealed the effect of topic on cohesive patterning but showed no effect of familiarity on cohesion. When the essays were ranked according to their level of coherence and compared to the ordering of texts according to the cohesive analysis, no relation appeared between coherence ranking and cohesive patterning. Additional analyses of types of cohesive ties showed no significant relation between specific types of cohesive patterning and coherence. It was concluded that the cohesion of a text, as defined by Halliday and Hasan, bears no direct, causal relationship to the coherence of text. (RL)