English Grammar: Maintaining Parallelism

As mentioned last week, parallelism is the gimmick that allows us to get away with a longer sentence. The brain says, “I’m out of here,” after about twenty words. But often we can keep our reader with us if we make sure that all parts of each sentence are in the same grammatical form. Parallelism means that coordinate or balanced ideas are expressed in the same constructions. Nouns must be parallel with nouns, verbs with verbs, phrases with phrases, clauses with clauses, and so forth. For example, that was forwarded last week and that was delivered by my courier service are parallel constructions. On the other hand, that was forwarded last week and to have been delivered by my courier service are not parallel. Lack of parallelism is a very common problem.

Maintain parallelism in the following instances:

Items in a Series

A series consists of three or more elements. Although the repetition of the construction is essential, the repetition of the tag word (in, the, of, for, to) is optional. If the parallel elements are long or deserve special emphasis, use the tag word. If not, omit it.

• She maintained a tight schedule by working forty hours a week, training for the marathon, studying for chemistry, and socializing with her friends.
• The restaurant is famous for its elaborate menu, for its good service, and for its exorbitant prices.

Coordinate Ideas

Coordinate ideas are connected by coordinating conjunctions such as for, and, nor, but, or, yet. Also, maintain parallelism for ideas in comparisons created by than or as.

• Political candidates often try to discredit their opponents or to confuse the voters.
• She was in the hospital because she liked singing in the rain and dancing in the shower.

Ideas in a Vertical List

Don’t mix complete sentences, single words, and different types of phrases in the same list.

The order of business will be as follows:

• Hearing the reports of the subcommittees
• Creating a procedure for updating employees’ computers
• Revising the employee handbook

Items with Two-Part Connectives

Two-part connectives (correlative conjunctions) include either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, both/and. Make sure that the type of construction following the first connective is the same type following the second connective. Helping verbs such as “have” and “can” are especially troublesome. If the helping verb is shared by both main verbs, place the helping verb before the first connective. If the helping verb is not shared, place it after the connective. Notice that all three of the following sentences are parallel.

• Either Eric will go to the party with his friends, or he will go to the movie with his sister.
• Eric either will go to the party with his friends or will go to the movie with his sister.
• Eric will either go to the party with his friends or go to the movie with his sister.

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Comments

[philippine courier service]

Thanks for sharing this tips.Just like parallelism sending package or even letters to your love ones have an easiest and shortest way too.Since i am working from the other country i need this short way.

-Stephanie