Parallelisms in sentences

DANCEL A. UDQUIM
DISCUSSANT
BARRIO OBRERO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
PARALLELISM IN SENTENCES

DO YOU WANT THEME PAPERS WITH LESS RED MARKS?

Today we will try to :
 Help you identify common sentence errors
 Give you easy ways to make corrections
 Enable you to develop your own
personal editing checklist

But this TRAINING will NOT :
 Make your sentence errors disappear
 Guarantee “A” papers
 But it will help you get closer to your goal
of less red, more well -said

Let us Start.
Are you ready?

PARALLELISMS in SENTENCES

WHAT IS PARALLELISM?
Using the same grammatical form for equal ideas
is called PARALLEL STRUCTURE
or PARALLELISM.
 Parallelism means that a series of words,
 phrases, and clauses that serve the same function
 in a sentence should be given
 balanced and equal grammatical form.

WHAT DOES PARALLELISM LOOK LIKE?
For example:
Direct objects should “match” each other.
 I like golfing, hiking, and to travel to other countries.
 I like golfing, hiking, and traveling to other countries.
 We saw her pride in herself and how jealous she was
of others.
 We saw her pride in herself and her jealousy of
others.

WHAT DOES PARALLELISM LOOK LIKE?
Another example:
Modifiers should “match” each other.
• Mike seemed sad, restless, and like he was
afraid of something.
• Mike seemed sad, restless, and fearful.
• Annie dances gracefully and with a lot of skill.
• Annie dances gracefully and skillfully.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT PARALLELISM?
Do you agree?
Parallelism
• Makes your sentences more graceful
by giving them a smooth rhythm.
• Clarifies your meaning or logic.
• Shows connections or relationships.
• Creates coherence in your writing.

What is so great about PARALLELISM?
Do you agree?
• We use PARALLELISM to
give equal importance to
related sentence parts or
related ideas by putting them
in matching grammatical
structures.

Let us Start.
Are you ready to create parallelism?
MAKE ITEMS IN A SERIES PARALLEL
Most children would rather eat a hot dog,
chips, and a cookie.
(singular, plural, singular)
Most children would rather eat hot dogs,
chips, and cookies.
(plural, plural, plural=parallel)

MAKE ITEMS IN A SERIES PARALLEL
I remember the sweet chirping of the birds, the way the
squirrels ran up the trees, and how majestic the trees were.
(gerund, phrase/clause, clause)
I remember the sweet chirping of the birds, the lively
scampering of the squirrels up the trees, and the majestic
swaying of the trees.
(all gerunds=parallel)
I remember how the birds chirped sweetly, how the squirrels
scampered playfully, and how the trees swayed
majestically.
(all clauses=parallel)

HOW TO CREATE PARALLELISM?
Let us try.
REPEAT CONNECTING ARTICLES (a, an, the)
OR USE JUST ONE AT THE BEGINNING OF
THE SERIES.
• She bought a skirt, shoes, and a bracelet.
• She bought a skirt, a pair of shoes, and a
bracelet.
• I ordered the onion soup, fried chicken, and a
chocolate sundae.
• I ordered the onion soup, fried chicken, and
chocolate sundae.

HOW TO CREATE PARALELLISM?
• REPEAT PREPOSITIONS or
USE ONE PREP TO GOVERN THE WHOLE
SERIES
• Sam said that his success came from honesty, from
hard work, and by having a positive attitude.
• Sam said that his success came from honesty, hard
work, and optimism. OR
• Sam said that his success came from honesty, from
hard work, and from optimism.

WHEN MAKING COMPARISONS, THE
THINGS YOU COMPARE SHOULD BE
WRITTEN IN PARALLEL FORM
My income is smaller than my wife.
My income is smaller than my wife’s. (income)
Shakespeare contrasts the hot-headedness of
Tybalt with Romeo.
Shakespeare contrasts the hot-headedness of
Tybalt to the sensitivity of Romeo.
HOW TO CREATE PARALELLISM?

FAULTY PARALELLISM?
When related ideas or sentence parts are NOT expressed in
parallel structure, that is called FAULTY PARALLELISM.
• I pretended to have an itch on my ankle or that
my sock had slipped.
• Hank doesn’t like baseball or getting tackled.
• Jan likes taking hikes and to play tennis.
• The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the
fence, and down the ally.

For now, see if you can spot and correct faulty parallelism.
1. In English class we are learning to read
poems critically and we appreciate
good stories.
2. Ralph’s IQ is higher than his brother.
3. Coach Dix is a sly strategist, a caring
mentor, and friend.
4. Mr. Smith keeps his store neat, well
stocked, and everything is clean.

PARALLELISM CONTINUED
How would you improve this sentence?
Parallelism also means using similar kinds of
words when listing words in a pattern. If you
are listing items in a series, they should all be
the same type of word or phrase. For
consistency, make sure all of the pieces in your
succession are singular nouns, plural nouns,
verbs of the same tense, adjectives, etc.
Does this look right?
"Ryan is friendly, smart, and a good
athlete."

INCORRECT
"Ryan is friendly, smart, and a good
athlete.”
CORRECT
"Ryan is friendly, smart, and
athletic."
Changing a good athlete to athletic
makes it an adjective. Now it matches the other
descriptions of Ryan.

Try this one:
"When I grow up, I want to be a teacher,
a policeman, or work at a store as a
cashier."
CORRECT SENTENCE:
"When I grow up, I want to be a teacher,
a policeman, or a cashier."
The part about working at a store must be a noun to
match the previous two nouns (teacher and
policeman).

Here is a tricky one:
"A pediatrician is a children's
doctor, and a foot doctor is a
podiatrist."
Did you write this?
"A pediatrician is a children's
doctor, and a podiatrist is a foot
doctor."
The kind of doctor is followed by an explanation
of the doctor's specialty, not vice versa.

Try this one:
"My favorite fruits are the
banana, apples, and grapes."
CORRECT:
"My favorite fruits are bananas,
apples, and grapes."
You must make banana plural for it to match
the other fruits.

One more example of lack of
parallelism...
"Writing a book takes
dedication and being
creative."
You must change being creative
to creativity.

MORE ON PARALLELISM
When you write a sentence, two or
more parts of the sentence that do the
same thing should have structures that
match. Their structures should be
parallel.
This applies most clearly when you
use more than one verb in the
sentence, but it applies also to clauses
and other words that perform similar
functions.
Let's have a look at some examples.

Parallelism Errors in Verbs
Incorrect: I like to play, to
sing, and drawing.
Correct: I like to play, to
sing, and to draw.
You could leave out the "to" in the
second and third verbs, because the
first "to" would cover them all. But
as you see, you could not say "I like
to can draw."

Parallelism Errors in Verbs
Can you see the parallelism
error in the following
sentence?
He is good at skating
and to play baseball.

Other Parallelism Errors: Either/Or
Incorrect: We must either
raise more money or it
will be necessary to cut
expenses.
Correct: We must either
raise more money or cut
expenses.
Phrases connected by "either/or"
(or "neither/nor") must be parallel in
structure.

Other Parallelism Errors: Incorrect Prepositions
Some parallelism errors arise when words
take different prepositions, even if the words
perform the same function.
Incorrect: She is interested and
excited about the film.
Correct: She is interested in and
excited about the film.
"Interested" and "excited" are similar
adjectives, but take different prepositions.
You can say "excited about" but not
"interested about."

LET US TRY
Directions: Choose the sentence that
has no errors in structure.

EXAMPLE
A. Eileen bought new shoes for the party,
a gold charm for her mother, and to
treat her best friend Maria to lunch.
B. Eileen decided to buy new shoes for
the party, purchasing a gold charm for
her mother, and treating her best
friend Maria to lunch.
C. Eileen purchased new shoes for the
party, a gold charm for her mother,
and lunch for Maria, her best friend.

ITEM 1
A.Barking dogs, kittens that were
meowing, and squawking
parakeets greet the pet shop
visitors.
B.Barking dogs, meowing kittens,
and squawking parakeets greet
the pet shop visitors.
C.Dogs that bark, kittens that
meow, and parakeets squawking
greet the pet shop visitors.

ITEM 2
A. During class, Adrian spent his time
flirting with Nicole, eating candy, and
doodling on the assignment sheet.
B. During class, Adrian spent his time
flirting with Nicole, he ate candy, and
C. During class, Adrian spent his time to
flirt with Nicole, to eat candy, and

ITEM 3
A. Alex looked everywhere for his math book—
under the bed, on his desk, and he searched
inside the refrigerator.
B. Alex looked everywhere for his math book—
viewing under the bed, searching on his
desk, and inside the refrigerator.
C. Alex looked everywhere for his math book—
under the bed, on his desk, and inside the
refrigerator.

ITEM 4
A. The manager wanted staff who arrived
on time, smiled at the customers, and
didn’t snack on the chicken nuggets.
B. The manager wanted staff who arrived
on time, would be smiling at the
customers, and would not be
snacking on the chicken nuggets.
C. The manager wanted staff who arrived
on time, smiled at the customers, and
no snacking on the chicken nuggets.

ITEM 5
A. After giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia
had to tolerate his late night calls, stupid
conversations, and requests for her math
homework.
B. After giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia
had to tolerate his late night calls, the fact that
he carried on stupid conversations, and
requests for her math homework.
C. After giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia
had to tolerate being woken up late at night,
having stupid conversations, and he
constantly requested her math homework.

ITEM 5
A. After giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia
had to tolerate his late night calls, stupid
conversations, and constant requests for her
math homework.
B. After giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia
had to tolerate his late night calls, the fact that
he carried on stupid conversations, and
requests for her math homework.
C. After giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia
had to tolerate being woken up late at night,
having stupid conversations, and he
constantly requested her math homework.

LET US PLAY
Directions: In the items that follow, choose the
correct word or phrase within the context
suggested by the sentence.

ITEM 1
Pasta boiling in water, __________, and
garlic bread baking in the oven welcomed
Francisco as he opened the door.
A. simmered tomato sauce in the pan
B. tomato sauce simmering in the pan
C. tomato sauce that simmered in the pan
D. saucy tomatoes that were simmering
in the pan

ITEM 2
During our vacation in the Bahamas, we
hope __________, to enjoy beautiful
sunsets, and to dance ourselves dizzy at
reggae clubs.
A. that we eat delicious seafood
B. that eating delicious seafood occurs
C. to eat delicious seafood
D. eating delicious seafood

ITEM 3
Karen wished Ray chewed with his
mouth closed, for otherwise he was
everything she wanted in a date; he
was tall, intelligent, and __________.
A.he looked good
B.being good looking
C.one handsome man to look at
D.handsome

ITEM 4
To win Laurie’s love, Albert visited the
florist for roses, the drugstore for a box
of chocolates, and __________.
A. bought an expensive gold necklace
at the jewelry store
B. the jeweler for an expensive gold
necklace
C.the jeweler where he bought an
expensive gold necklace
D.to buy an expensive gold necklace

ITEM 5
Kimberly won’t date Terry because
he is too short, too noisy, and
_________.
A.because he picks his teeth with
his fingers
B.too impolite
C.is the most impolite man she has
ever met
D.Picking his teeth with his fingers

Parallelisms in sentences

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