LEARN HOW TO USE PARALLEL STRUCTURES IN YOUR WRITING


Understanding parallelism will help you become a more accurate and more advanced writer. Parallelism refers to parallel, or balanced, sentence structure. Parallel structures are generally quite logical, because there are rules that you can follow. By keeping the grammatical forms in your writing consistent you help your readers to understand your content more clearly.

 

Task One
Read the two paragraphs below and decide which one is written in a better, more readable style.
A   B
Are you a jogger or do you lift weights? Do you run marathons or are you a triathlete? When it comes to breaking a sweat, each to his own. But what kind of exercise is best if you want to live longer? In particular, is shorter exercise and sharper better than longer and duller exercise?   Are you a jogger or a weight lifter? Do you run marathons or take part in triathlons? When it comes to breaking a sweat, each to his own. But what kind of exercise is best if you want to live longer? In particular, is shorter and sharper better than longer and duller?

Task Two – Recognising Parallel Structures
Place the words and phrases below under the correct grammatical headings. Two examples have been done for you.


If you got all the answers right, congratulations! You have just classified the words and phrases by considering whether their structures are parallel or not
Task Three - Coordinating Conjunctions

The parallel constructions you saw in the text in Task One occur because of the use of the coordinating conjunctions or and and. The conjunction, but, may also require parallel structures.

  Look at the 3 sentences below and identify which one contains faulty parallelism.
  A.I have no idea which prison he is in or when his release date is.
Sorry!
  B.The exam board did not pass the student on this occasion but approving his right to take the exam again.
Correct!
  C.As a teenager she loved skiing, diving into the warm waters of the Mediterranean and bungee jumping.
Sorry!
 

The answer is B.
Now see if you can correct the faulty parallelism in B by writing your answer in the box below.

 
Your Answer:
Possible Answers:
The exam board did not pass the student on this occasion but approved his right to take the exam again.
The exam board did not pass the student on this occasion but it/they approved his right to take the exam again.
The exam board did two things in the past, so both verbs should be in the past tense. 


Task Four
Correct the faulty parallelism in each of these sentences by writing your answers in the boxes below, and then check whether you are right.
1. Yosemite is a national park with truly amazing scenery and which has half-tame bears.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Yosemite is a national park with truly amazing scenery and half-tame bears.
Yosemite is a national park with truly amazing scenery and with half-tame bears.
Stylistically, it is not necessary to repeat the preposition, with, because it sits very close to the first one.

2. Every weekend I go to the gym, basketball with my friends and go for a hike.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Every weekend I go to the gym, play basketball with my friends and go for a hike.
Each phrase needs to contain its own verb to complete the parallel structure of the sentence; otherwise the sentence is grammatically incorrect.

3. The comedian was hilarious, but he told very rude jokes.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
The comedian was hilarious, but very rude.
The original sentence is not grammatically incorrect and would be acceptable in spoken English, but the style is awkward on paper, because the sentence is not structured in a parallel way.

4. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or you cannot even touch them. They must be felt with the heart.  (Helen Keller)
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.  (Helen Keller)
A parallel structure is achieved by making the second verb passive like the first one.

5. Gaugin was a remarkable painter, sculptor and he was also well-known for his writing.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Gaugin was a remarkable painter, sculptor and writer.
The independent clause - he was also well-known for his writing - has been replaced with a noun to accompany the first two nouns.


Task Five – Items in a List
Numbers 2) and 5) in the previous task are examples of sentences which contain more than two items linked with a conjunction. In other words, they are examples of lists in a sentence. This is a common feature of academic writing, creative writing and reporting.

  Look at the 3 sentences below and identify which one contains faulty parallelism.
  A.The objectives of these tasks are to improve your ability to write more accurately, to express yourself more clearly and to sound more natural.
Sorry!
  B.She prepared her talk on the plane, presented it the next day at the conference and then paid a visit to the old people’s home where her mother was residing.
Sorry!
  C.The professor said he used to be a very bad student, because he rarely came to class on time, never asked questions and his motivation was quite low.
Correct!
  The answer is C.
Now see if you can correct the faulty parallelism in C by writing your answer in the box below.
 
Your Answer:
Possible Answers:
The professor said he used to be a very bad student, because he rarely came to class on time, never asked questions and had low motivation/was not very motivated.
Now the sentence is balanced because each of the three phrases begins with a verb in the past tense.


Task Six
Correct the faulty parallelism in each of these sentences by writing your answers in the boxes below, and then check whether you are right.

1. Manatees are very large animals, completely aquatic and they only eat plants.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Manatees are very large animals, completely aquatic and vegetarian.
Notice the use of three adjectives to make the sentence parallel.

2. The boys’ football shot over the fence, bounced down the road and into a bed of roses.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
The boys’ football shot over the fence, bounced down the road and fell into/landed in a bed of roses.
The boys’ football shot over the fence, down the road and into a bed of roses.
The first answer is parallel because each phrase begins with a verb in the past tense.
The second sentence is parallel because each phrase begins with a preposition. Notice how the verb – shot – does not need to be repeated. 

3. The policeman said to the suspect, “Tell me where you were, what you were doing and who was with you at 7 o’clock yesterday evening”.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
The policeman said to the suspect, “Tell me where you were, what you were doing and who you were with at 7 o’clock yesterday evening”.

4. He went to live in Scotland because he had grown tired of the Far East and to be near his ageing mother.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
He went to live in Scotland because he had grown tired of the Far East and wanted to be near his ageing mother.
Both verbs are now in a past form.

5. Jones argues in his article about Disneyland that the spontaneous element of play has been removed, the park reinforces ideas of male dominance and racism and the theme park is out of place in countries like China and Japan. 
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Jones argues in his article about Disneyland that the spontaneous element of play has been removed, that the park reinforces ideas of male dominance and racism, and that the theme park is out of place in countries like China and Japan. 
The repetition of that makes it much clearer to the reader that the article contains three different arguments. These, and the commas, also help to define where each one begins and ends.


Task Seven – Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions are conjunctions that work as a pair and that link words, phrases and clauses. They include the following:

either … or
neither … nor
not only … but also
both … and
whether … or

Look at the 3 sentences below and identify which one contains faulty parallelism.
  A.Students should register for the course either by filling in the registration form or send an email to the course leader, Dr. Cheung.
Correct!
  B.You should sign and date both at the top of the document and at the bottom.
Sorry!
  C.Chinese New Year is a time not only for giving and receiving red packets, but also for eating special seasonal food with family and friends.
Sorry!
  Now see if you can correct the faulty parallelism in A by writing your answer in the box below.
 
Your Answer:
Possible Answers:
Students should register for the course either by filling in the registration form or by sending an email to the course leader, Dr. Cheung.
To register for the course, students should either fill in the registration form or send an email to the course leader, Dr. Cheung.
Note that it is necessary to change the structure of the sentence if you decide to use a different verb form.


Task Eight
Correct the faulty parallelism in each of these sentences by writing your answers in the boxes below, and then check whether you are right.

1. We must either increase our revenues or we will need to reduce our costs.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
We must either increase our revenues or reduce our costs.
Our revenues will either need to be increased or our costs reduced.
Note the use of ellipsis (or the removal of unnecessary words) from the second answer. Without the use of ellipsis the sentence would be unnecessarily repetitive and wordy, i.e.

Our revenues will either need to be increased or our costs will need to be reduced
.

2. The football team is not only responsible to the manager, but also the fans as well.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
The football team is responsible not only to the manager, but also to the fans.
The football team is not only responsible to the manager, but also to the fans.

3. Her new novel is both engaging and it is very moving.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Her new novel is both engaging and very moving.
She has written both an engaging and very moving new novel.

4. I had no idea what she saw in her new boyfriend; he was neither good-looking nor was he very interesting to talk to.  
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
I had no idea what she saw in her new boyfriend; he was neither good-looking nor was he very interesting to talk to. 

5. People often avoid making eye-contact with each other whether they are in a lift, sitting opposite each other on a train or when they are in a supermarket queue.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
People often avoid making eye-contact with each other whether they are in a lift, on a train or in a supermarket queue.
People often avoid making eye-contact with each other whether they are standing in a lift, sitting opposite each other on a train or queuing in a supermarket.
The first answer consists of parallel prepositional phrases, whereas the second contains parallel verb phrases.


Task Nine – Comparisons
When making comparisons in a sentence the elements that are being compared need to be balanced grammatically; otherwise this may result in some confusion. Words that may signal comparative structures include:

more … than
less … than
rather than
as … as

  Look at the 3 sentences below and identify which one contains faulty parallelism.
  A.Raymond always found creative writing much more enjoyable than Biology.
Sorry!
  B.The LegCo members spent the whole morning session arguing with each other rather than work together to find a reasonable compromise. 
Correct!
  C.For a competitive athlete, playing fairly ought to be as important as winning.
Sorry!
  The answer is B.
Now see if you can correct the faulty parallelism in B by writing your answer in the box below.
 
Your Answer:
Possible Answer:
The LegCo members spent the whole morning session arguing with each other rather than working together to find a reasonable compromise. 
Note that it is necessary to change the structure of the sentence if you decide to use a different verb form.


Task Ten
Correct the faulty parallelism in each of these sentences by writing your answers in the boxes below, and then check whether you are right.

1. It is better to judge people by their actions rather than by what they say.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
It is better to judge people by their actions rather than by their words.
It is better to judge people by what they do rather than by what they say.

2. The schools in the rural area are not as big as the inner city.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
The schools in the rural area are not as big as the schools in the inner city.
The schools in the rural area are not as big as those in the inner city.
The schools in the rural area are not as big as the ones in the inner city.
The schools in the rural area are not as big as the inner city – This sentence is not logical, because it compares the size of the schools with the size of the inner city. The sentence should compare schools with schools and there are various ways of doing this.

3. Sarah prefers to go out with just one or two friends than socialising in a big group.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Sarah prefers to go out with just one or two friends than to socialise in a big group.
Sarah prefers going out with just one or two friends than socialising in a big group.
See how the verb forms are different in each sentence, but within each sentence they are the same and therefore parallel.

4. The rules of cricket are much more difficult to learn than baseball.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
The rules of cricket are much more difficult to learn than the rules of baseball.
The rules of cricket are much more difficult to learn than those of baseball.    
Cricket is much more difficult to learn than baseball.

5. Christine likes yoga a lot less than Tina.
 
Your Answer:
Answer:
Christine likes yoga a lot less than Tina does.

Christine likes yoga a lot less than Tina – This original sentence compares yoga with Tina, which is probably not the intention of the writer. If we avoid this confusion by writing - Christine likes yoga a lot less than Tina likes yoga – the sentence is unnecessarily repetitive. The auxiliary, does, parallels likes, because its form is present and third person singular. Compare the use of the auxiliary, did, in sentence 3. 



Task Eleven
The paragraph below summarises everything you have been learning about parallel structure, but it contains at least nine cases of faulty parallelism. Pay attention to what the paragraph is telling you to do and follow these instructions to write a better version of the paragraph in the box provided. If you need help with identifying any faulty parallelism, click on the ‘Help’ button.

  In summary, parallelism is an important characteristic of academic, creative writing and reporting and refers to the balanced construction of sentences. In a good piece of writing this balanced structure should be achieved with words, phrases and at the level of the clause. It is important to note that both the forms of words and verb tenses should be consistent when they are paired or when they are part of a list. Remember also not to mix active verbs and verbs in the passive. Parallelism, however, is not only a feature of grammar, but also it affects style. It makes your writing smoother, more elegant and with a sense of maturity. Whenever you use coordinating or correlative conjunctions in your writing, or when you compare or you want to list items, you should be on the alert for parallelism. An understanding of parallel structure helps you write with better accuracy, more clearly, and more efficiently. 
 
Your Answer:
Possible Answer:
In summary, parallelism is an important characteristic of academic writing, creative writing and report writing and refers to the balanced construction of sentences. In a good piece of writing this balanced structure should be achieved with words, phrases and at the level of the clauses. It is important to note that both word forms and verb tenses should be consistent when they are paired or when they are part of a list. Remember also not to mix active and passive verbs. Parallelism, however, is not only a feature of grammar, but also it affects of style. It makes your writing smoother, more elegant and with a sense of maturity more mature. Whenever you use coordinating or correlative conjunctions in your writing, or whenever you compare or you want to list items, you should be on the alert for parallelism. An understanding of parallel structure helps you write with better accuracy more accurately, more clearly, and more efficiently. 


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