A few weeks ago, we decided to begin a series of “Grammar & Style” blog entries in which we would spotlight a particular grammar or style issue that seems to be troublesome for many college students. (These entries might also be a sort of copout when we don’t feel like being creative and writing a blog entry that takes a lot of brainpower, ha ha.) Since the last entry covered the em dash, we thought that it would be fun to tackle a style issue in this latest entry. So, today we are going to discuss “parallel construction.” This fun writing tip will help you not only construct awesome sentences but also revise your papers for clarity and readability. Enjoy, and happy sentence constructing!
Parallel Construction
According to Merriam Webster, the term parallel refers to entities that exhibit “parallelism in form, function, or development.” So, when discussing writing, the term parallel refers to the parallel constructions of various phrasal elements. In basic terms, when a series of words and phrases don’t match in form, then the construction isn’t parallel. When writing a series of verbs or verbal phrases, the tense and form of the words should match. And, generally speaking, when writing any sort of series, the form and function of the words and phrases should match. Does this all sound a little confusing? Well, it’s a little confusing to describe, so below are examples to illustrate the concept of parallel construction. Each section includes a sentence that is not parallel and then a revised version of that sentence.
Not Parallel: At the football tailgate, we grilled food, drank beer, and were playing bags.
Parallel: At the football tailgate, we grilled food, drank beer, and played bags.
Not Parallel: We watched the butterfly as it flew to the flower, sipped on the nectar, and the cat saw it.
Parallel: We watched the butterfly as it flew to the flower and sipped on the nectar. The cat saw it . . .
Not Parallel: Cooking dinner, we cut all of the vegetables and washed all of the fruit.
Parallel: While we cooked dinner, we cut all of the vegetables and washed all of the fruit.