PARALLELISM

Place in parallel structure the sentence elements that are parallel in thought.
Look at these examples of parallelism:
1. Myths and fables are so much a part of Philippine life. (two nouns in parallel
structures)
2. The purpose of this review is to teach, test and measure your riddle quotient.
(three verbs)
3. These are riddles which are constantly being created, are untiringly circulated
in parties, and are just as quickly discarded. (three adjective clauses)
4. Teaching and writing are trademarks of an intellectual life. (two verbals)
After correlatives, use sentence elements which are parallel in structure.

Wrong: Pilar was neither sleepy nor could she continue working.
Better: Pilar was neither sleepy nor tired.
Wrong: George is both helpful to the citizens and to the officials of the town.
Better: George is both helpful and cooperative with the officials of the town.
Better: George is helpful both to the citizens and to the officials of the town.
Repeat articles, auxiliaries, subordinating conjunctions, prepositions, the sign of
the infinitive, etc. before sentence elements parallel in structure, if the
parallelism is not clear without them.
a. Articles

Ambiguous: Jerry met a friend and teacher at the movie theater last night.
Correct:
Jerry met a friend and a teacher at the movie theater last night.
b. Auxiliaries

Bad: The boarders should be notified of the rules made by the owner and asked
to obey them.
Better: The boarders should be notified of the rules made by the owner and
should be asked
to obey them.
c. Prepositions

Not clear: Tom is fond of walking one or two kilometers and playing a half hour
of table
tennis with his brother on weekends.
Better: Tom is fond of walking one or two kilometers and of playing a half hour
of table
tennis with his brother on weekends.
d. The infinitive

Unclear: Man has learned to convert the chemical energy of natural gas into
mechanical
energy, to store chemical energy in explosives, and get electrical energy
from water.
Clear: Man has learned to convert the chemical energy of natural gas into
mechanical
energy, to store chemical energy in explosives, and to get electrical
energy from water.
e. Subordinating conjunction

Not clear: Johnny discovered that the land was poor, the implements needed
repair, and the
crops were rotted by the flooding river.
Better: Johnny discovered that the land was poor, that the implements needed
repair, and that
the crops were rotted by the flooding river.
Coordinate ideas should be put in parallel form.

Wrong: He likes tennis and to swim.

Better: He likes to play tennis and to swim.
Mr. Cruz likes to brag about his family connections, to trace the detailed history of
each member, and writing monographs of family celebrities.

The little boy wanted to know why the fish had such a big eye, why the sky is blue, and
the sea is salty.

The thief started to cram the bills into the bag, the box, and even into his hat and
pocket the coins hidden in the steel chest.

He was a messenger of the principal and janitor part of the time.

The success of government programs depends on the leaders integrity and the
cooperation of the people.

Pessimism leads to sickness, failure, and feeling hopeless.

National leaders must serve the country with dedication and they must be humble.

Allan is both generous to his friends and demands their loyalty in return.

to use words vividly and thinking creatively

was observant, sensitive, and could command respect

either to stop, look or listening

watching television and to listen to the radio

to count and sharing your blessings

FOCUS
To construct effective sentences, one needs to learn the art of focus --- the
conformity between thought and grammatical structure. Put simply, a sentence is in
focus if it has as its grammatical subject the thing or person that one wants to talk
about and has as its verb the action or state of being one wants to depict.
PARALLELISM
One device for maintaining focus is parallelism, the placing of like ideas in
like form. Because the likeness of form makes the likeness of content easily
recognizable, parallelism improves sentences in many ways.
It tightens and unifies sentences and makes them coherent and emphatic.
Parallelism is especially important in coordination because coordinate elements
must be grammatically equal and parallel.
Coordinate elements of thoughts may be cast as words, phrases, or clauses.

Consider the following examples:

1. One must pay the price of time, care, and attention.
2. There is only one bit of magic in this life that can move mountains and turn dreams
into things. They can touch, feel, see, and enjoy.
3. I want them to understand the absolute and profound.
4. When you try to teach a girl to become a woman or a boy to become a man, the
lesson is as long as your life.
5. I would have to teach my child a million things: to balance a bike, to tie shoelaces,
and to answer such questions as What is the capital of Ohio?
parallelism
6. Life is not lived in lifetimes or even seasons, but in sunny mornings and rainy
afternoons, in picnics in the yard, in waiting for a childs fever to break, in sitting
quietly with your husband or wife on a Wednesday night, or in picking up her dress or
his suit at the cleaners.
7. I will try to give my children a sense of security and hope that they will develop
enough of a willingness and ability to think and that they will feel comfortable with an
open mind.
8. Nothing worth building was ever founded on quicksand; no statue was ever carved
from putty; no enduring society was ever built on laziness, selfishness, and
irresponsibility.
Parallelism After Correlatives
Correlatives are paired sets of connectives joining elements of equal rank. The
most common of these are eitheror, neithernor, not onlybut also, and
bothand.
For logic and clarity, a correlative construction must be parallel; that is, what
comes after the first of the pair must come after the second.
Examples:
1. I believe that work and self-discipline are essential both for attaining individual
happiness and for establishing a viable society.
2. Today the overriding concern --- not only of youth but also of other large
segments of our people --- often seems to be a highly individualized self-interest.
3. Perhaps the primary belief of this new ethnic is
that the individual neither owes any loyalty
nor recognizes any obligation to authority and to
traditional values.
4. Rather, ones chief allegiance is considered to be
either to his own conscience or to his own desires.
5. We see manifestations of this unanchored
individualism not merely in hostile attitudes but
also in excessively tolerant views toward personal
conduct.