Transcript Parallelism
ENGL394 Expression of two or more similar ideas using the same parallel structure ◦ -nouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives Helps your audience understand that ideas are related and of similar importance Makes your writing easier to read and avoids reader confusion Gary likes to read, write, and play basketball. Can you think of another way to write this sentence? Gary likes to read, write, and play basketball Gary likes reading, writing, and playing basketball. Gary likes to read, write, and play basketball. Gary likes reading, writing, and playing basketball. These examples use consistent verb tenses. Gary likes to read, write, and playing basketball. What’s wrong with this sentence? Gary likes to read, write, and playing basketball. You never want to mix word patterns. Andersen is hiring managers, programmers, and people who work in accounting. What’s wrong with this sentence? Andersen is hiring managers, programmers, and people who work in accounting.” PARALLEL: Andersen is hiring managers, programmers, and accountants. Andersen earns income by auditing, consulting, and by bookkeeping. What’s wrong with this sentence? A preposition sits before a noun or pronoun to show the noun’s relationship to another word in the sentence. ◦ -about, at, before, behind, by, for, from, into, near, of, on, over, through, to, under A prepositional phrase contains a preposition and an object of the preposition. Chart from towson.edu Andersen earns income by auditing, consulting, and by bookkeeping. PARALLEL: Andersen earns income by auditing, consulting, and bookkeeping. PARALLEL: Andersen earns income by auditing, by consulting, and by bookkeeping. Formerly, science was taught by the textbook method, while now the laboratory method is employed. Is there something wrong with this sentence? Formerly, science was taught by the textbook method, while now the laboratory method is employed. PARALLEL: Formerly, science was taught by the textbook method; now it is taught by the laboratory method. Common belief: In order to make your writing interesting, you have to vary the forms of your expressions. -Not necessarily true The French, the Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese all speak different languages. What’s wrong with this sentence? The French, the Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese all speak different languages. PARALLEL: The French, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Portuguese all speak different languages. If you use an article (such as “the”) before a term, you must use it before all the terms. Be careful when using correlative expressions, such as both/and or either/or. It was both a long ceremony and very tedious. How can we fix this sentence? It was both a long ceremony and very tedious. PARALLEL: The ceremony was both long and tedious. It was both a long ceremony and very tedious. PARALLEL: The ceremony was both long and tedious. **Use either/or and neither/nor** Sometimes, you have to use an entirely different word to maintain parallelism. The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and in a detailed manner. Suggestions on how to make this sentence parallel? The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and in a detailed manner. Instead of “in a detailed manner,” use “thoroughly.” The production manager was asked to write his report quickly, accurately, and thoroughly. It is very important to keep lists parallel. The dictionary can be used to find these: word meanings, spellings, pronunciations, and looking up irregular verbs. What’s wrong with this list? The dictionary can be used to find these: word meanings, spellings, pronunciations, and looking up irregular verbs. PARALLEL: The dictionary can be used to find these: word meanings, spellings, pronunciations, and irregular verbs. You will be doing a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of your client. The SWOT analysis is essentially a list of internal and external factors. It is important to keep your SWOT analysis parallel. When proofreading your writing, stop at the words “and” or “or.” Look at both sides of the word to see if surrounding words are parallel. For items in a list, put them in a column. With your partner, work on the SWOT analysis of Silver Spring Nursery School to make it parallel. Structure the phrases/sentences in the way you think is best. When you are finished, send me your new SWOT document: [email protected]