Writing Parallel Structure
Of all the literary devices that exist in the world, parallelism is my favorite. That’s a pretty strong statement too, because I have a hard time picking favorites. When I’m editing or reading, I find that well-written parallelism jumps out at me because it sounds lovely to my ear. When the parallelism is faulty, it jumps out at me for the wrong reasons—it usually sounds jarring or unnatural. So what exactly is it and how do you write it?
What is parallelism?
Parallelism, or parallel structure, occurs when two or more parts of a sentence have the same or a similar grammatical structure. It can be simple or complex, and you encounter it most often in series or lists.
Some examples include:
You’re the one I want and the one I need.
They must demonstrate they’re either smart enough or rich enough to be accepted into the program.
“I came, I saw, I conquered.”
“From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam.”
Anaphora is a literary device that takes parallelism one step further, where successive phrases or sentences begin with the same word or phrase. Perhaps one of the most well-known examples of this is the opening of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . .”
Epistrophe is the opposite of anaphora, where the repetition is at the end of the phrases or sentences, not the beginning. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address is a well-known example of epistrophe, at least to those who live in the US: “. . . and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Elements of parallelism
In order to achieve parallelism, certain elements need to be aligned, and consistency is key. The following four areas are ones to pay attention to.
Parts of speech
All elements should begin with the same part of speech.
Example 1
Faulty: The bird’s feathers, which were vibrant, colorful, and like silk, distinguished it from the others. (adjective, adjective, prepositional phrase)
Parallel: The bird’s feathers, which were vibrant, colorful, and silky, distinguished it from the others. (all adjectives)
Example 2
Faulty: The puppy chose the couch, under the blanket, and bed as hiding spots. (noun, prepositional phrase, noun)
Parallel: The puppy chose the couch, blanket, and bed as hiding spots. (all nouns)
Verb tense
Example 1
Faulty: Lily walks to the park and sat on a bench. (present tense, past tense)
Parallel: Lily walks to the park and sits on a bench. (both present tense)
Example 2
Faulty: Sometimes I ate too much cake and drink too much soda at parties. (past tense, present tense)
Parallel: Sometimes I eat too much cake and drink too much soda at parties. (all present tense)
Verb forms
Mismatched verb forms lead to one of the most common faulty parallelism mistakes I come across. Gerunds are verb forms that act like nouns and end with -ing (“Sitting for too long isn’t good for my posture”). Infinitives are verb forms made from to + first person singular verb (“to go” [or “to boldly go,” arguably the most famous split infinitive in history] or “to fall”). I often see these different verb forms mixed.
Example 1
Faulty: Allen loves dancing and swimming and to sing. (gerund, gerund, infinitive)
Parallel: Allen loves dancing and swimming and singing. (all gerunds)
Parallel: Allen loves to dance and to swim and to sing. (all infinitives)
Example 2
Faulty: Playing video games and to read are my favorite pastimes. (gerund, infinitive)
Parallel: Playing video games and reading are my favorite pastimes. (all gerunds)
Parallel: To play video games and to read are my favorite pastimes. (all infinitives)
Quantities
Generally, elements should all be singular or all be plural in order to match. This isn’t always the case, though, so it depends on whether it works in the context of the sentence. If there’s a mix of singular and plural, see if you can make them all match and still have it make sense.
Example 1
Faulty: Donna has many fancy bookmarks but instead uses receipts, candy wrappers, and an envelope to mark where she left off. (plural, plural, singular)
Parallel: Donna has many fancy bookmarks but instead uses receipts, candy wrappers, and envelopes to mark where she left off. (all plural)
Example 2
Faulty: Lakes and the river are places I like to fish. (plural, singular)
Parallel: Lakes and rivers are places I like to fish. (all plural)
Pairing elements with correlative conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions relate one element of a sentence to another, and sentence constructions using correlative conjunctions require the elements to be parallel. The ones commonly found in writing are neither/nor, either/or, both/and, not only/but also. I come across errors in these sentence constructions often, usually because of faulty parallelism. The key is to read what comes after each correlative conjunction in the sentence to make sure they match. If I use an either/or construction, I’ll read what words follow “either” and what words follow “or” and compare them. If they aren’t parallel, I may have to tweak each part, or sometimes it’s a simple matter of moving the conjunction elsewhere in the sentence.
Example 1
Faulty: Faulty parallelism usually occurs either because of different parts of speech or different verb forms. (subordinate clause, adjective phrase)
Correct: Faulty parallelism usually occurs because of either different parts of speech or different verb forms. (move conjunction “either”)
Correct: Faulty parallelism usually occurs either because of different parts of speech or because of different verb forms. (match phrases)
Example 2
Faulty: Rover not only loves chicken but also beef. (verb phrase, noun)
Correct: Rover not only loves chicken but also loves beef. (match phrases)
Correct: Rover loves not only chicken but also beef. (move conjunction “not only”)
Writing bulleted or numbered lists
Bulleted and numbered lists don’t come up too much in fiction writing, but they’re abundant elsewhere, such as in textbooks, recipes, and résumés. Each list item should be comparable to the others, using the guidelines discussed earlier. Consistent formatting is also essential; each list item should have the same bullet type, indention level, spacing, typeface, and font size. Each list within the document should also be consistent with one another, if possible. Two notes on numbered lists: 1) Double check that the numbers are in order, a potential hazard of shuffling lines by copying/pasting. 2) If you state somewhere that you’re listing [X] number of items, recount your items to make sure that you indeed have [X] number as promised (this happens more often than you’d think).
Let’s look at the following basic job responsibilities that may be listed on an editor’s résumé.
Copyedit fiction manuscripts
Prepare style sheets
Engage in ongoing professional development
In all three responsibilities, the parts of speech (verbs), verb tense (present tense), and verb forms (first person, not gerunds or infinitives) all match. It’s not necessary to test quantities because the parallel elements are verbs, not nouns.
Testing for parallelism
There are two quick tests I perform mentally when checking that parallel structure is indeed parallel.
Test 1: The first test is to read only the first parts of each element to make sure they match the criteria listed above. This is especially handy when you have lists, or if you have a series made up of phrases, where the parallelism may be harder to distinguish than when there are single words. Let’s take the résumé example from above. If I just look at the first words of each item, I’ll find “copyedit,” “prepare,” and “engage.” These are all parallel, so they pass test 1.
Test 2: The second test is to read the word or phrase directly preceding the series or list in question and apply that word or phrase before each item in the series or list, not just the first one. This test comes in handy because sometimes it’s easier to compare whole sentences, rather than single words or phrases. In some instances, the subject of a sentence is implied. In a résumé, the job responsibilities are listed with an implied “I.” If you use this test on the job responsibilities listed above, you’d read it as “I copyedit,” “I prepare,” and “I engage.” In imperative sentences (commands), the implied subject is “you.” This test can be used when you’re checking a recipe: you wash, you chop, you bake. Let’s apply this test to the following sentence: “On weekends, I like to sleep in, walk to the park, watch movies, and snuggle my dog.” I would take the phrase that precedes the series and apply it to each element to test for parallelism.
I like to sleep in.
I like to walk to the park.
I like to watch movies.
I like to snuggle my dog.
All parallel.
To test sentences that use correlative conjunctions, ignore the conjunctions themselves and apply the word or phrase preceding the conjunction to the parallel elements you’re testing. We’ll use an earlier example for this: “Faulty parallelism usually occurs either because of different parts of speech or different verb forms.” You would ignore the conjunctions and apply the preceding word or phrase (in this case, “faulty parallelism usually occurs”) to each element that follows the conjunctions.
Faulty parallelism usually occurs because of different parts of speech.
Faulty parallelism usually occurs different verb forms.
Oops. That second one doesn’t make sense. Something is wrong with the parallel structure and should be fixed. This test may sound unnecessarily complicated, but some may find it helpful. I know I do.
Final thoughts
Parallelism can be tricky to grasp at first, but it becomes more natural with practice. If you find it challenging to tell if a sentence’s structure is parallel, try applying the two tests. If you don’t intentionally use parallelism, do you think adding it could strengthen your writing? As a literary device, it can add balance, rhythm, and consistency to writing, as well as make it memorable. Give it a try!
