Friday, April 18th, 2008
Getting Parallel: A Guide to Parallel Sentence Structure
A while back, I was giving some thought to the idea of what makes the writing of one person or publication seem more professional than that of another. Obviously, routine errors in spelling and grammar don’t help anyone’s writing. Beyond that, however, it’s tough to pin down a precise reason that we prefer one passage over another. I thought that if I could understand that, I could offer guidance to help my struggling students perform at the level of the more gifted writers in my classes.
I mentioned this to my friend Ralph, a colleague in the math department, and you could almost see the light bulb go on over his head. “Have you ever made a formal statistical study of it?” he asked.
When I said that I hadn’t, he looked at me like I had lost my mind. Apparently, that’s the obvious solution for an analytical person like himself.
With that on my mind, I sat down to grade another stack of essays from some of my AP seniors. These are kids who, for the most part, have mastered the basics. It’s rare that I find them mixing up “your” and “you’re”, confusing “affect” and “effect”, or dangling participles like there’s no tomorrow. Even still, some are very skilled writers and others are almost painful to read.
This time, I kept a list of errors as I went through the papers. There were a few careless spelling errors, some run-ons, and a couple of mis-used words, but the error that stuck out the most was the apparent inability to obey the rules of parallel sentence structure.
If you’re not familiar with the concept, parallel sentence structure means using the same word pattern to construct a string of sentence elements that are similar in function. It’s actually much easier to explain by example, and most people become very aware of it after being exposed to the concept.
INCORRECT: I tell my students they should read frequently, smile often, and to question everything.
CORRECT: I tell my students they should read frequently, smile often, and question everything.
There are 5 basic scenarios where you’d need to concern yourself with parallel sentence structure, and I’ll go through all of them below:
1. Making Comparisons
If you want to say that something is more than or better than something else, you’ll need to make sure your sentence structure is parallel.
INCORRECT: Eating dinner rolls is better than to throw them.
CORRECT: Eating dinner rolls is better than throwing them. OR It’s better to eat dinner rolls than to throw them.
2. Elements Joined by coordinating conjunctions
In case you’ve forgotten, the coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. You can remember them by remembering the word FANBOYS.
INCORRECT: My dog likes eating and to lick himself.
CORRECT: My dog likes eating and licking himself.
3. A Series or a List
If you’re joining a list of items, you need to make sure they are all structured similarly.
INCORRECT: Josh likes nachos, hot dogs, and to drink Mountain Dew.
CORRECT: Josh likes nachos, hot dogs, and Mountain Dew.
INCORRECT: Michael enjoys washing, drying, and to fold his laundry.
CORRECT: Michael enjoys washing, drying, and folding his laundry.
4. When Joining Elements With Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions are pairs of words like “neither…nor” or “not only…but also”.
INCORRECT:Tim not only wants a pair of clown shoes but also a red nose.
CORRECT: Tim wants not only a pair of clown shoes but also a red nose. OR Tim not only wants a pair of clown shoes but also wants a red nose.
5. To Join a Linking Verb & a Verb of Being
The one’s a little tough to understand from the description alone, but it becomes much clearer upon examination.
INCORRECT: For Snowball, to succeed is urinating in the litter box.
CORRECT: For Snowball, to succeed is to urinate in the littler box.
Once you’ve mastered these scenarios, you’ll greatly improve your ability to impress others through the written word. Hopefully, my students will see it the same way.