This document discusses parallel structures when using coordinate conjunctions like "and", "but", and "or". It explains that expressions joined by these conjunctions must be of the same type, such as two nouns, two adjectives, two verbs in the same tense, two phrases, or two clauses. Examples are provided to illustrate parallel structures joining different parts of speech and phrases. The importance of ensuring parallelism is emphasized to avoid errors when using coordinate conjunctions.

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LEARNING SPACE
TOPIC: Parallel structures with coordinate conjunctions
Coordinate conjunctions (and, but, or, so, yet) are used to join equal expressions. This
means that you may join two or more nouns, two or more adjectives, two or more verbs
in the same tense, two or more phrases, or two or more clauses. So, whenever you read a
sentence and you observe that there are two or more expressions joined by a coordinate
conjunction, make sure that these expressions are of the same type, meaning that they
are parallel.
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NOTE THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES
JOINING NOUNS
You can choose from activities such as hiking and kayaking.
JOINING ADJECTIVES
The exam that he gave was short but difficult.
JOING VERBS
You can stay home or go to the movies with us.
JOINING PHRASES
There are students in the classroom and in front of the building.
JOINING CLAUSES
I am here because I must be and because I want to be.
Example of a sentence that is not parallel:
My boss is sincerely and nice.
In this example, there is a coordinate conjunction: and. But the sentence is not parallel
because the two descriptive words (sincerely, nice) are not of the same type. “Sincerely” is
an adverb. “Nice” is an adjective. So, they are different. To correct this, you’d have to
change “sincerely” to an adjective: sincere.
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ALWAYS: Pay attention to words like and, but, or, so, & yet. Observe that the expressions
they are joining are equal in structure and type.