Chapter 5 Parallelism

According to the principle of parallelism, comparable sentence parts must be structurally and logically similar.
The employees were upset by the companys low pay, poor working conditions, and shortage of outlets for
employees creativity.
Three comparable parts: things that upset the employees. All must be nouns.
Parallelism Markers
Open Markers
Structure
Closed Markers
Structure
And
X and Y
Both/And
Both X and Y
Or
X, Y, and Z
Either/Or
Either X and Y
Rather than
X rather than Y
Not only/But also
Not only X but also Y
1. When open markers are used, it is not easy to see where the X element begins.
Wrong:
I want to retire to a place WHERE I can relax AND I pay low taxes.
Correct:
I want to retire to a place WHERE I can relax AND WHERE I pay low taxes.
When an open marker is used, check for ambiguity with respect to words play the role of X element.
2. When a closed marker is used, anything after the first portion of the marker applies only to X element
Wrong:
Ralph likes BOTH those who are popular AND who are not as well-liked.
Correct:
Ralph likes BOTH those who are popular AND those who are not as well-liked.
3. These signals words do not have to be the same word.
Correct:
There are many people WHO speak English BUT WHOSE parents do not.
Superficial Parallelism vs. Actual Parallelism
When people learn how to use parallelism, they mistakenly go overboard, assigning parallelism when no marker is
present.
Sal applied himself in his new job, arriving early every day, skipping lunch regularly, AND leaving late every
night.
The main clause, applied himself in his new job, is not parallel to participle phrases. That is fine.
The importance of AND: Its the most common parallelism marker, AND will always signal parallelism.
The manager AND her team were praised by the CEO.
Compound subject
In one terrible day, the account manager lost a client
AND greeted the CEO of her company by the wrong name.

Compound verb

New data indicate that, over the course of the past

Week, the stock market jumped AND the unemployment rate decreased.

Two clauses

A rapid improvement in motor function AND vision was observed.

Prepositional phrase

Historians have uncovered new evidence, confirming several theories

Adverbial modifier
AND giving rise to the new hypotheses.
Parallel Meaning
A certain class of verb, the linking verb, is used to describe what a subject is or what condition the subject is in.
These linking verbs are parallelism markers. (Is, are, was, were, am, been, be, being)
Wrong: The bouquet of flowers WAS a giving of love.
Correct:
The bouquet of flowers WAS a gift of love.
The two parallel elements also have to make logical sense.
Wrong:
Upon being nominated, this politician IS a step forward in urban-rural relations in this country.
Correct:
The nomination of this politician IS a step forward in urban-rural relations in this country.