Part 1 - PARALLELISM AS A MARK OF GOOD WRITINGThe mark of good writers is their ability to set their ideas in parallel, not simply the richness of their thoughts and the depth of their grammar knowhow. They can competently construct sentences by using basic grammar structures that can clearly and unmistakably convey the sense and meaning of what they have in mind.
The general rule for achieving parallelism is simply this—
that all of the grammatical elements a sentence enumerates or presents in serial succession must have the same form and common structure. This applies to all the parts of speech in English, from articles and prepositions to nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs as well as to the verbals—the infinitives, gerunds, and participles. How scrupulously the parallelism rule is applied greatly determines the readability and persuasiveness of sentences.
A very basic application of the parallelism rule is the proper use of the article “the” for the serial elements of sentences. The rule is that when “the” applies to all the serial elements in the sentence, that article must either be used only once before the first element, or else used for each element every time. When this rule is violated, see and feel how awkward the sentence reads: “
The Chinese, Thais,
the Indonesians, and Vietnamese all live in the Asian mainland.”
Now feel the vast tonal and structural improvement in the sentence when “the” is used only before the first element yet clearly conveys the sense of modifying all of the elements in the series: “
The Chinese, Thais, Indonesians, and Vietnamese all live in the Asian mainland.” Or better still, when “the” is consistently used to modify each of the serial elements: “
The Chinese,
the Thais,
the Indonesians, and
the Vietnamese all live in the Asian mainland.”
Always keep in mind that the most common indicator for the need for parallel structure is the presence in a sentence of the conjunctions “and,” “or,” “yet,” and “but.” Take a look at this serial enumeration that requires “and”: “We won
in the major provinces,
in the key cities,
and in towns with a population of over 20,000.” Note that the preposition “in” is repeated in all of the three serially enumerated phrases—a parallel structure device that emphasizes the idea of winning in each of the areas cited.
Now see what happens when we knock off “in” from the last two phrases: “We won
in the major provinces,
the key cities,
and towns with a population of over 20,000.” The sentence remains grammatically correct, of course, but without the parallel use of “in” in all the three phrases, it no longer has the rhythmic power and emphasis of the original sentence.
Now let’s carry out the parallelism to a higher level by setting in parallel even more grammatical elements in that same sentence: “
We won in the major provinces,
we won in the key cities,
and we won in towns with a population of over 20,000.” By using “we won” in all the three clauses, we imbue the sentence with emotional power—the burst of enthusiasm that would be expected from the writer or speaker under such circumstances.
The same value of parallelism can be seen in sentences that use “or”: “
You can take your vacation in New York,
or you can take it in Paris.” This construction is much better and more emphatic than this non-parallel construction that dropped the second “you can take it”: “
You can take your vacation in New York,
or in Paris.”
In sentences that use “yet,” this parallel construction is preferable: “
You can take the train;
better yet take the plane.” Its non-parallel construction is this: “
You can take the train;
better yet the plane.” Note that the verb “take” was dropped in the second phrase, weakening the statement.
In the next five parts of this series, we will explore in greater detail how to use parallelism to give clarity and balance not only to individual sentences but also to entire compositions.
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This reprises and updates the author’s 2006 series in his English Plain and Simple columns on parallelism as a mark of good writing. This essay, 2,132nd of the series, appears in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the January 5, 2023 digital edition of The Manila Times
, ©2023 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.Read this essay in
The Manila Times:
Parallelism as a mark of good writing – 1(Next week:
Parallelism as a mark of good writing - 2) January 12, 2023
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