Sentence Skills I

Parallelism

English Skills for Academic Studies

John Langan

pp 230-231 & pp 251-253

Parallelism (Parallel Structure)
What Is Parallelism?
It is the writing technique of balancing
items in a pair (or a series) so that all
the items have the same grammatical
structure. Parallelism makes sentences
clearer and easier to read.
 Using Parallelism
Balance a noun with a noun, a phrase with a
phrase, a clause with a clause.

Many students are interested in modelling when

they read about it at home, study about it in
school, or watching it on television.
Revision: Many students are interested in
modelling when they read about it at home,
study about it in school, or watch it on
television.
 Using Parallelism with Pairs
• When two ideas are included, they must be
parallel.
– Tourists enjoy watching fireworks on the
harbour front and to shop around the
city.
• Revision:
– Tourists enjoy watching fireworks on the
harbour front and shopping around the
city.
 Using Parallelism
• Put words linked by coordinating conjunctions
in parallel form.
– The martial arts stress the study of
hand techniques and how you move
your feet.
• Revision:
– The martial arts stress the study of
hand techniques and of foot work.
 Using Parallelism
• Correlative conjunctions (either/or,
neither/nor, both/and,
whether/or) require parallel form.

In Kung Fu the hands must be not only hard

enough to knock down a man, but also their
sensitivity must feel which way the wind blows.
Revision:
In Kung Fu the hands must be not only hard
enough to knock down a man, but also
sensitive enough to feel which way the wind
blows.
 Using Parallelism
• Comparisons using than or as need parallel form.
– The Director would rather use negotiation
than taking legal action to solve the
problem.
• Revision:
– The Director would rather use negotiation
than take legal action to solve the
problem.
 Using Parallelism
• By repeating the prepositions,
prepositions the articles,
articles
or the subordinating conjunctions,
conjunctions the
parallelism becomes clearer and more
effective.
– The negotiators promised to help out
in the day or night.
• Revision:
– The negotiators promised to help out
in the day or in the night.
 Using Parallelism
In general, watch out for non-parallel
structures when you have two or
more items in a series.