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Many writers, whether novice or expert, may find themselves unwittingly violating the rules of Parallelism or unintentionally adhering to them. The rule itself is quite simple, but it’s impact is distinguishable and its effects somewhat profound in terms of its lasting impression upon readers.
Parallelism focuses mostly on lists and list items, but can be extended to included many other forms of syntax. The key factor in obeying this rule is in consistency.
However, that person wouldn’t write that a subject do something unless they were giving an order to the subject.
Likewise, and perhaps much clearer, a person wouldn’t write that multiple subjects does something unless grouping them with a word that symbolizes the collective as a group.
If we apply the rule of Parallelism, we would have: John smiled, shopped, and jumped.
Since, I’m this example, jumped is already past tense, the prepositional phrase in the past can be omitted to avoid redundancy.
As another example, try the sentence: Jane went swimming, rode a skateboard, and now walks home.
To make this sentence grammatically correct, we change it to: Jane went swimming, then skateboarding, and is walking home now.
The word now may be considered redundant in the corrected sentence, but since writers typically have to account for their audience’s susceptibility to confusion from ambiguity, I have chosen to include it.
Parallelism only applies to a single sentence and is not valid across multiple sentences, paragraphs, or sections of text beyond a single sentence.
Maintaining the same grammatical form throughout a list of items or across relating terms in a sentence is essential to the rule on Parallelism.
Similar to subject-verb agreement, Parallelism incorporates other parts of a sentence, such as in this case, a list or series.
When presenting a list or series of items, the best practices are to provide all the items in the same tense and voice. Providing one item in passive voice (for example, will be provided by me) and then an active voice (for example, I will provide) in the same sentence or paragraph may confuse a reader.
The first example should be recast in order to conform to the rules of Parallelism. For example, we were running, flying over the Himalayas, and eating popcorn. In this example, all three list items are parallel in grammatical structure.
The rules of subject-verb agreement fall under the umbrella of parallelism as well. If a subject is plural, then the verb that defines the action of the subject must be pluralized as well.
In some cases, a word can have the letter s after it in parentheses. This is used to allow for the possibility that a singular object may also be pluralized in the sentence provided. For example, if it were possible that there were more than one sentence provided, then the previous sentence would end as follows: “…more than one sentence(s) provided.”
In terms of the rules of parallelism, pluralization agreement extends beyond just the subject-verb relationship to any two objects of a sentence that correspond to each other in some way. For example, “I have a bunch of leash for the dog.” The missing pluralization to provide proper parallelism in the sentence leaves the reader confused on what exactly was intended to be pluralized and unclear what the subject actually has.
For style rules, common sense dictates that a sentence begin and end in the same font size and style unless the writer intended to stress a certain word or phrase in a sentence. For example, sending a text with the words in all capital letters may be interpreted as the writer was unconcerned with case; or all lowercase may imply the same conclusion. However, capitalizing a single word or two in the sentence of that same text with all other letters and words lowercase will be interpreted as a momentary shouting or emphasis of that word(s). Same can be said for increasing font size, changing color, changing the actual font face (such as Times New Roman) all have significant impact on the message being delivered.
Introduction to Parallelism
Many writers, whether novice or expert, may find themselves unwittingly violating the rules of Parallelism or unintentionally adhering to them. The rule itself is quite simple, but it’s impact is distinguishable and its effects somewhat profound in terms of its lasting impression upon readers.
Parallelism focuses mostly on lists and list items, but can be extended to included many other forms of syntax. The key factor in obeying this rule is in consistency.
Preliminary Example of Parallelism
As a simple example, a person would write that a single subject does something and a pluralized subjects do something.However, that person wouldn’t write that a subject do something unless they were giving an order to the subject.
Likewise, and perhaps much clearer, a person wouldn’t write that multiple subjects does something unless grouping them with a word that symbolizes the collective as a group.
Rule of Parallelism
To make the example clearer, let’s define Parallelism. Parallelism is the matching of parts of a sentence so that they share the same grammatical form. That is to say, Parallelism ensures that words agree in tense, voice, number, and/or general structure.Parallelism In Action
Let’s take this example: John smiled, went shopping, and has had to jump in the past.If we apply the rule of Parallelism, we would have: John smiled, shopped, and jumped.
Since, I’m this example, jumped is already past tense, the prepositional phrase in the past can be omitted to avoid redundancy.
As another example, try the sentence: Jane went swimming, rode a skateboard, and now walks home.
To make this sentence grammatically correct, we change it to: Jane went swimming, then skateboarding, and is walking home now.
The word now may be considered redundant in the corrected sentence, but since writers typically have to account for their audience’s susceptibility to confusion from ambiguity, I have chosen to include it.
Summary
In conclusion, Parallelism helps instill a sense of consistency between words grouped together or related to each other in a sentence.Parallelism only applies to a single sentence and is not valid across multiple sentences, paragraphs, or sections of text beyond a single sentence.
Maintaining the same grammatical form throughout a list of items or across relating terms in a sentence is essential to the rule on Parallelism.
Understanding Parallelism
Parallelism is a rule that governs various scenarios for ensuring a sentence is uniform in presentation. As an example, imagine we were running, flew over the Himalayas, and like to eat popcorn.Similar to subject-verb agreement, Parallelism incorporates other parts of a sentence, such as in this case, a list or series.
When presenting a list or series of items, the best practices are to provide all the items in the same tense and voice. Providing one item in passive voice (for example, will be provided by me) and then an active voice (for example, I will provide) in the same sentence or paragraph may confuse a reader.
The first example should be recast in order to conform to the rules of Parallelism. For example, we were running, flying over the Himalayas, and eating popcorn. In this example, all three list items are parallel in grammatical structure.
The rules of subject-verb agreement fall under the umbrella of parallelism as well. If a subject is plural, then the verb that defines the action of the subject must be pluralized as well.
In some cases, a word can have the letter s after it in parentheses. This is used to allow for the possibility that a singular object may also be pluralized in the sentence provided. For example, if it were possible that there were more than one sentence provided, then the previous sentence would end as follows: “…more than one sentence(s) provided.”
In terms of the rules of parallelism, pluralization agreement extends beyond just the subject-verb relationship to any two objects of a sentence that correspond to each other in some way. For example, “I have a bunch of leash for the dog.” The missing pluralization to provide proper parallelism in the sentence leaves the reader confused on what exactly was intended to be pluralized and unclear what the subject actually has.
For style rules, common sense dictates that a sentence begin and end in the same font size and style unless the writer intended to stress a certain word or phrase in a sentence. For example, sending a text with the words in all capital letters may be interpreted as the writer was unconcerned with case; or all lowercase may imply the same conclusion. However, capitalizing a single word or two in the sentence of that same text with all other letters and words lowercase will be interpreted as a momentary shouting or emphasis of that word(s). Same can be said for increasing font size, changing color, changing the actual font face (such as Times New Roman) all have significant impact on the message being delivered.