Download Understanding Parallelism: Techniques and Importance for Clear and Effective Writing and more Exams Literature in PDF only on Docsity! PARALLELISM Parallelism refers to the use of identical grammatical structures for related words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence or a paragraph. Parallelism can make your writing more forceful, interesting, and clear. It helps to link related ideas and to emphasize the relationships between them. Once a grammatical pattern has been established, the reader doesn’t have to strain to understand your meaning and ideas. Faulty parallelism refers to the absence of parallel structure and the subsequent loss of clarity. Achieving Parallel Structure Parallelism ensures that similar clauses or phrases are uniform in expression and function. To achieve parallelism, you must use the same verb, noun, adverb, or adjective forms consistently throughout a sentence. Consider the following examples: Paul likes dancing, swimming, and running. Paul likes to dance, swimming, and run. In the sentence “Paul likes dancing, swimming, and running,” all of the activities Paul enjoys are consistently presented as gerunds (verbs in their –ing form that act as a noun), which retains parallelism. On the other hand, in the sentence “Paul likes to dance, swimming, and run,” the activities Paul enjoys are presented in inconsistent forms, resulting in a sentence that is not parallel. This results in a decreased flow, an awkward sentence, and an increased amount of work for the reader. Situations that Require Parallel Structure You will encounter many instances where you will need to make sure your sentence is parallel. The most common situations are listed below: Lists or Series All lists of things, qualities, or actions should take the same grammatical form. Faulty: e.g., Cassandra loves reading the newspaper, taking long walks, and to dance the tango. Parallel: e.g., Cassandra loves reading the newspaper, taking long walks, and dancing the tango. When a list begins with a preposition, either include the preposition only at the beginning of the list or include it before every item: Incorrect: Dictionaries are useful for learning to spell correctly and to prop open windows. Correct: Dictionaries are useful for learning to spell correctly and propping open windows. Note that you can create parallel structure in various ways: e.g., For opera to take root in Great Britain, infrastructure was required: the building of financial support, the training of singers, and the education of audiences. e.g., For opera to take root in Great Britain, three things were required: building financial support, training singers, and educating audiences. e.g., For opera to take root in Great Britain, it was necessary to build financial support, train singers, and educate audiences. Nouns Joined by Coordinating Conjunctions Faulty: e.g., Among many cultures, rites of passage can involve feats of courage and sometimes even doing dangerous things. The addition of the verb doing before the second noun disrupts the balance of the sentence. Parallel: e.g., Among many cultures, rites of passage can involve feats of courage and sometimes even dangerous things. Phrases Joined by Correlative Conjunctions (either...or, neither...nor, both...and, not only...but also, whether...or, etc.) Faulty: e.g., Idrees is not only fluent in Urdu but also in English. Parallel: e.g., Idrees is fluent not only in Urdu but also in English. Since both nouns are modified by a single adjective (fluent), the adjective should be placed before the first correlative conjunction (not only). Where each correlative conjunction has its own verb, the correlative conjunction comes before the verb: Faulty: e.g., Idrees speaks not only two languages fluently but also plays cricket very well. Parallel: e.g., Idrees not only speaks two languages fluently but also plays cricket very well.
