Parallelism – the key to graceful writing!

Posted on | June 11, 2009 | No Comments

Have you ever wondered what makes a sentence beautiful? What makes it memorable? Recall the famous quote by John F. Kennedy, which says, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Isn’t it graceful? It leaves an impression in one’s mind. What is so special about this sentence? The meaning behind of course is beautiful. Had it been written differently, it would have meant the same, isn’t it? For example – “What you can do for the country is an important question to ask rather than to ask what your country can do for you”. Alternatively, it could have been, “Ask yourself, what you can do for the country, instead of asking what your country can do or you”. But, these sound so casual, unimpressive, and sometimes awkward too.

The principle applied for impressive writing is balance and consistency. These elements lend grace to the sentence and leave a mark in readers’ mind. 

Parallelism is a grammatical balance of sentence elements.

Eloquent speakers like Martin Luther King, Jr, Abraham Lincoln and many more, used parallel constructions in their speeches. This helped them create suspense. Besides offering beauty and grace, parallelism:

• creates smooth flow
• puts emphasis on points
• brings conciseness

Elements with same function or with similar ideas should be grammatically parallel. Parallelism has no specific area of application. Words, phrases, or a series of sentences within a paragraph can be parallel. Even a paragraph can parallel another paragraph. The thumb rule to be kept in mind is to ‘match apple with apple’.

You will find the need for parallelism in different scenarios, such as:

Read on to discover some tips that will help you avoid flawed parallelism.

• Group similar ideas and items together

  Example
  Incorrect: I felt that the cell phone was heavy, poorly designed and was too expensive.
  Correct: Sam picked up his bag, phone, and notebook.

• Balance nouns with nouns, clause with clause

  Example
  Incorrect: Democracy demands responsibility, whereas obedience is an important factor in tyranny.
  Correct: Democracy demands responsibility, whereas tyranny demands obedience.

• Give similar grammatical structure to clauses joined by conjunctions

  Example
  Incorrect: Paul asked me to review my article and that I should pay close attention to parallel structures.
  Correct: Paul asked me to review my article and to pay close attention to parallel structures.

• Place verbs, articles and prepositions carefully

  Example
  Incorrect: My dietician not only told how to lose weight but also how to avoid weight regain.
  Correct: My dietician told not only how to lose weight but also how to avoid weight regain.

• Use sentence of equal length in lists (bulleted or numbered points)

• Use similar form of words in a list

  Example
  Incorrect: I like writing, singing, and to write articles.
  Correct: I like writing, singing, and writing articles.

• Include article or preposition (if same for all) just in first or in all items of list

  Example
  Incorrect: I went to work, a bookshop and the movies.
  Correct: I went to work, to bookshop and to the movies. Alternatively, I went to work, bookshop, and the movies.

Remember, excess of everything is bad. Ensure that you don’t lose the intent of the sentence while making it parallel.

Apply parallelism – write intense with the right intent!

Note: As a test to your learning, check where I have broken the rule of parallelism in this article. Simple yet interesting, isn’t it?

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