Welcome!
Welcome to the Learning Commons Quick Start Guide on parallelism!
When writing about any topic, structuring your argument well is essential to communicating your point. Using parallelism in your writing helps to strengthen your argument structure by representing consistent structure at the sentence level. Parallelism is especially important in writing thesis statements because the structure of your thesis statement serves as a template for the structure of your entire paper.
This guide will explain:
- How to identify sentences that violate parallelism
- How to make elements of a sentence parallel
Course Information
Course Level: Beginner
Time to Complete: <10 mins
Perfect for: Students in WRTG100/101, ENGL103, or anyone who needs a refresher.
Guide Creator: Andrew Johnson
Parallelism 101
This video introduces the main uses of parallelism:
- why we want to use parallelism
- how to check parallelism
- how to correct parallelism when it is violated
In this mini-course we explore this in more detail:
- Parallel Lists
- Parallel Predicates
- Parallel Comparatives
- Wrap-Up
Parallel Lists
The question of whether a sentence is parallel most often arises when listing a series of items with equivalent weight. To ensure your sentence is parallel, make sure each element is roughly the same “kind” of thing: adjectives, adverbs, phrases, or sentences, for example. In fact, the previous sentence demonstrates parallelism because the four list items, “adjectives,” “adverbs,” “phrases,” and “sentences” are all
- Plural
- Nouns
- Terms for grammatical units
- Expressed using a single word
- Roughly equivalent in relevance to the main idea
Consider one incorrect alternative: “To ensure your sentence is parallel, make sure each element is roughly the same “kind” of thing: an adjective, listing long phrases, make multiple sentences into a list, or adverbs, for example.” Do you see how this second sentence flows less smoothly? The list items are all still related to each other, but they no longer feel like “equal” members of a list because they do not share as many parallel properties.
Using parallelism properly helps to model the structure of your argument and the relationship between your points in the based on the structure of your individual sentences.
Your Turn: Test Your Understanding!
Parallel Predicates
In some cases, you will need to describe one participant taking multiple actions in a single sentence. Although it is possible to join three clauses into a single sentence, if the individual actions contribute to a single idea, your resulting sentence may sound clunky until you employ parallelism.
Consider the following:
The track team was running its way to a state championship trophy, the track team jumped its way to a state championship trophy, and the track team had thrown its way to a state championship trophy.
Versus:
The track team ran, jumped, and threw its way to a state championship trophy.
As always, it is important to remain consistent in your writing and use consistent tense throughout your paper. This is especially important when writing parallel predicates. Shifting tense within a parallel structure is almost always enough to break parallelism and therefore harm your writing.
Your Turn: Test Your Understanding!
Parallel Comparatives
Parallelism is often used in writing to compare and contrast ideas. However, this can be tricky, especially if you need to choose to compare either individual terms or wordy descriptions. Placing the comparative (either/or, both/and) can be tricky. You can think of these comparatives as parentheses in mathematics: the words before your comparative apply to both the “either” phrase and the “or” phrase, but the words after the comparative apply only to the phrase it is a part of.
Consider the following:
However, this can be tricky, especially if you need to choose to either compare individual terms or contrast wordy descriptions.
However, this can be tricky, especially if you need to choose either to compare individual terms or to contrast wordy descriptions.
Since both halves require 1) the word “to” and 2) an infinitive verb about comparison, it is possible to have the “either” follow “compare.” However, neither “individual” nor “wordy” refers to both “terms” and “descriptions,” so “individual” must follow “either.” Since the two parallel phrases being compared are “individual words” and “wordy descriptions,” we want to ensure that they are the same “kind” of thing:
- Short phrases
- Plural nouns
- Modified by adjectives
- Roughly equivalent in relevance to the main idea
Your Turn: Test Your Understanding!
Self-Check
Congratulations!
Now, return to the Learning Commons Resource Moodle and do the exit quiz to confirm your new knowledge!
Additional Resources
Below are some great links to follow if you want to read more on parallelism:
