In order to make your ideas in your sentences clear and understandable, words, phrases, and clauses should have parallelism –that is, the sentence structures should be grammatically balanced. A parallel construction is the repetition of grammatical patterns within a sentence or a series of sentences. By using similar grammatical form to express equal ideas, your sentences will flow smoothly, and your writing style will improve.
Use similar grammatical structures to balance your writing. If the first structure is a noun, make all of the other nouns; if it is a phrase, make all of the others phrases; if it is a clause, make all of the others clauses.
Incorrect : A student needs textbooks, notebooks, and he needs pens.
Correct : A student needs textbooks, notebooks, and pens. (Balance noun with nouns)
Incorrect : A student who does well in exams attends class, reads the textbooks, and he reviews the notes.
Correct : A student who does well in exams attends class, reads the textbooks, and reviews the notes. (Balance clause with clause)
Using parallelism
Conjunction (and, or, but)
Words, phrases, and clauses that are joined by and, or, and but are written in parallel form. Notice the parallel structures joined by conjunctions in the following sentences.
- People accused him of being a magician and that he was a fraud. (incorrect)
People accused him for being a magician and a fraud. (Correct)
Correlative conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions are placed differently before the elements they join in the sentence.
- Both … and …
Congress has provided the means for both regulating pesticides and ordering their removal if dangerous.
- Either … or …
She wanted to eat either spaghetti or steak.
- Neither … nor …
Neither Spiderman nor Tarzan went to the party.
At the present time, air pollution is controlled through laws passed not only to reduce the pollutant at their sources, but also to set up acceptable standards of air quality.
Comparisons (than, as)
- Than
Incorrect : Sleeping is much better than to work overtime.
Correct : Sleeping is much better than working overtime
- As
Correct : The members of the US House of Representatives are elected by district as the members of the British House of Commons are.
By repeating the preposition, the articles, or the subordinating conjunctions, the parallelism becomes clearer and more effective.
- I believe that eating chocolate makes you fat and that eating apples keeps you slim.
All the words in the first parallel structure do not have to be repeated in the second. You may repeat all or some of the words, depending upon what you wish to emphasize.
Before you write a paper a paper or (before) (you) take a test, you must organize your thoughts.
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