Constant Content

Hi Writers,

Please observe rules that help create parallel structures. Doing so will help you follow grammar rules and write sentences that are clear. You can probably recognize parallel sentence construction, but do you practice using it in your writing? If not, try it. You'll like it, and your readers will too.

Examples
Annabel likes to write about food, talking about wine, and lifting weights. (not parallel - different verb tenses are used in the series)
Annabel likes to write about food, talk about wine, and lift weights. (parallel - notice how "write," "talk," and "lift" all grammatically follow the "to" with the correct verb tense within the series)

Don opened a store with shoe repair, shoe selling, and flower departments. (not parallel)
Don opened a store with shoe repair, shoe sales, and floral sales departments. (parallel - all the departments in the series follow the same construction: the type of product followed by the type of service offered in the department)

Write clear sentences, follow grammar rules, punctuation, and proofreading drafts are subjects covered in this piece. (not parallel)
Writing clear sentences, following grammar rules, using proper punctuation, and proofreading final drafts are subjects covered in this piece. (parallel: present participle+adjective+noun - This sentence is not only clearer, but it has a rhythm and flow that is absent from the first sentence.)

Books and walking the dog were her favorite hobbies. (not parallel)
Reading books and walking the dog were her favorite hobbies. (parallel)

This is a very limited treatment of a very important topic, so I hope you'll venture over to the following references.

This resource explains parallism at great length and with lots of examples:
http://writingcenter.unlv.edu/writing/parallel.html

For the quick version, visit our old standby, Purdue's OWL:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/623/01/

If anyone has anything to add, please do.

Thanks,
Ed

You can also extend parallelism to the entire article. For example, if you open with "Don opened a store with shoe repair, shoe sales, and floral sales departments" it makes sense to keep the same order in subsequent paragraphs. In other words, you'd talk about the shoe repair department first, the shoe sales department next, and finally the floral sales department.

Thanks Ed and Celeste for some terrific ideas and references. I've been working on parallelism for the last couple of months. It can be a tricky area and it is always good to practice some more.

Hayley

I almost hesitate to comment because I am becoming more aware of just how little I understand grammar. I am learning quickly thanks to you Ed, Haley,and Celeste. There are also those who have commented on my posts whose names I do not remember; but I thank them as well. I have gained some insight into what my problem with sentence structure might be; when my problem with "run on sentences" was pointed out to me. Like Parallelism, I will take advantage of the link provided and see if I can work on this as well. I plan to sign up for an E course on writing articles at the first of the month. I have plenty of resources to look at now thanks to yall and I look forward to learning how to make my writing better. I said all of that to say this, Thank You for taking the time to teach.

This is very helpful, but I laughed until I was in tears. 'Don' has a very weird store, indeed. I'm overtired, don't judge me

ecdoran wrote:This is very helpful, but I laughed until I was in tears. 'Don' has a very weird store, indeed. I'm overtired, don't judge me

I can't help it I have to ask...what was so funny that you laughed at this post?

yashuasgirl wrote: I can't help it I have to ask...what was so funny that you laughed at this post?

Mostly it was funny because I was awake for way too long, but the idea of a store that specializes in shoes and flowers is kind of weird. It's just a funny combination. There was a store where I live that used to sell teaching supplies and dog food. That's it. But it's since closed due to a lack of business. I guess people that needed dog food went to the pet store and there weren't enough teachers looking for supplies for the store to profit. Shoes and flowers seem equally bizarre.