Part 4 -SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS OF THE PARALLELISM RULEWe have already taken up the two primary rules for parallel construction, namely that a sentence that presents two or more serial elements should stick to the same grammatical form all throughout, and that a parallel structure that begins with a clause should sustain that pattern all the way. We saw that by consistently observing these rules, we can build much clearer and more forceful sentences.
Now we need to totally familiarize ourselves with four very important applications of these two parallelism rules: (1) that all of the elements being enumerated in a list should take the same grammatical form, (2) that elements being compared should take the same grammatical form, (3) that elements joined by a linking verb or a verb of being should take the same grammatical form, and (4) that elements joined by a correlative conjunction should take the same grammatical form.
All elements in a sentence listing them should have the same parallel structure. We can make our written compositions better organized and more readable by using the same grammatical form for all of the elements we are enumerating in a list. The elements should all be noun forms, verb forms, infinitive phrases, gerund phrases, or participial phrases, whichever is most appropriate. When we allow any of the elements to take a different form, the rhythm of the enumeration is broken and the reader’s train of thought is needlessly disrupted.
Consider the following not-so-well-thought-out list: At present, our club has: (1)
no formal charter, (2)
subsisting without a long-term organizational goal, (3)
a seriously declining membership, (4)
a large budgetary deficit, and (5)
to collect a large amount of past-due membership fees.
The list looks awfully craggy and reads very badly for an obvious reason—its elements don’t follow a consistent grammatical form. Items 1, 3, and 4 are
noun phrases, but Item 2 is a
verb phrase in the progressive form, while Item 5 is an
infinitive phrase.
Now see how smoothly and cohesively the list reads when its elements all take the same parallel grammatical form, in this case as verb phrases:
At present, our club: (1)
lacks a formal charter, (2)
subsists without a long-term organizational goal, (3)
suffers from a seriously declining membership, (4)
carries a large budgetary deficit, and (5)
needs to collect a large amount of past-due membership fees.
Elements being compared should have the same parallel structure. In constructions that use the form “X is better than/more than Y,” we have to make sure that the elements being compared have the same grammatical structure.
Unparallel (gerund/infinitive): “She
enjoys jogging better than
to run.” :
Parallel (gerund/gerund): “She
enjoys jogging better than
running.”
Elements joined by a linking verb or a verb of being should have the same parallel structure. When we use “is” as a verb of being that links two elements, we have to make sure that the elements have the same grammatical structure.
Unparallel (infinitive/gerund): “
To make that impossible demand is
declaring open hostilities.”
Parallel (infinitive/infinitive): “
To make that impossible demand is
to declare open hostilities.”
Elements joined by a correlative conjunction should have the same parallel structure. When we use the correlative conjunctions “either…or,” “neither …nor,” “not only…but also,” “both…and…”, and “whether…or,” we have to make sure that the elements being correlated have the same grammatical structure.
Unparallel (gerund/infinitive): “For you to get to Manila on time, we suggest either
taking the morning flight tomorrow or
to drive overnight right now.”
Parallel (gerund/gerund): “For you to get to Manila on time, we suggest either
taking the morning flight tomorrow or
driving overnight right now.”
Unparallel: “They not only demand very short installment periods but also huge down payments.”
Parallel: “They demand
not only very short installment periods but
also huge down payments.”
Also parallel: “They
not only demand very short installment periods but
also demand huge down payments.”
We will take up next week some more important points for achieving parallelism.
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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, 2,135th of the series, appears in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the January 26, 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 – 4(Next week:
Parallelism as a mark of good writing - 5) February 2, 2023
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