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Parallelism
Parallelism Definition
Similarity of structure in
a pair or series of related
words, phrases, or
clauses. Also called
parallel structure.
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By convention, items in a series
appear in parallel grammatical
form: a noun is listed with other
nouns, an -ing form with other ing forms, and so on. Failure to
express such items in similar
grammatical form is called faulty
parallelism.
These Are Good! 
These Are Bad! 
Before
Tom plays the piano.
Tom plays the violin.
After
Parallelism =
Tom plays the
piano and the
violin.
Parallelism with Nouns
Jack eats fish and
chicken.
Sarah writes poetry and
short stories.
Parallelism with Verbs
Our neighbors have
moved and have sold
their house.
My sister walks or rides
her bike to work.
Parallelism with Adjectives
The class is not only fun
but also helpful.
She is not only strong but
also fast.
Parallelism with Adverbs
Peter drives quickly and
aggressively.
They work carefully and
effectively.
Your Turn!!
Place the following verbs in the correct
parallel structure: YIELDS, BRAKES
Place the following nouns in the correct
parallel structure: LAMPSHADE,
BOOKCASE
Place the following adverbs in the correct
parallel structure: FREELY, QUICKLY
Writers generally use parallelism as a
technique in the following five ways.
1. With elements joined
by coordinating
conjunctions, especially
and, but, and or.
2. Use parallel structure with elements in
lists or in a series.

A series is a group of three or more
elements in a row. The last element in the
series is connected to the others with one
of these coordinating conjunctions: and,
or, but (not), or yet (not).

Commas should be placed between
each element in the series and before the
coordinating conjunction.
3. Use parallel structure with elements
being compared. (X is more than / better
than Y)
When we compare things, we
often use words such as
more, less, better, and
worse, We connect the
items being compared with
words like as and than.
The elements being compared are parallel
to one another:
driving is parallel to flying
Miriam's ability to is parallel to her resolve
to
How you live is parallel to how much
money you make
4. Use parallel structure with elements
joined by a linking verb or a verb of being.
Use parallel structure with elements
joined by a correlative conjunction.
These are the major correlative
conjunctions:

either / or
neither /
nor
both / and
not only / but
also
 Correlative conjunctions work in pairs.
Examples with either / or and neither /
nor
Examples with both / and
Examples with not only / but also
Parallelism Exercises
Rewrite each
following sentence
to fix all parallelism
errors.
1. An actor knows how to memorize his
lines and getting into character.
2. Tell me where you were, what you were
doing, and your reasons for doing it.
3. Clark's daily exercises include running,
swimming, and to lift weights.
4. To donate money to the homeless
shelter is helping people stay warm in
the winter.
5. Jim not only likes working outside
but also getting dirty.
6. We followed the path through the
forest, over the hill, and we went across
the river.