Parallelism

What is parallelism?

Parallelism is a similarity of grammatical form for similar elements of meaning within a sentence or among sentences. When pairing ideas, underscore their connection by expressing them in similar grammatical form. Paired ideas are usually connected in one of three ways: coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions or comparison language.

The three key ways:

With a coordinating conjunction such as and, but, or, nor, yet

With a pair of correlative conjunctions such as either . . . or . . . not only . . . but also

With a word introducing a comparison, usually than or as

Adjectives / colon [:]

NO

Mergers have a number of associated problems: cultural, financial and technology.

YES

Mergers have a number of associated problems: cultural, financial and technological.

Verb Forms

NO

Amazon warehouse employees control merchandise, write orders for delivery, and are invoicing customers.

YES

Amazon’s warehouse employees control merchandise, write orders fordelivery, and invoice customers.

Gerunds (+ing forms)

NO

Fairtrade Foundation is aimed at achieving better trading conditions, promoting sustainable farming techniques and alleviate poverty.

YES

The Fairtrade Foundation is aimed at achieving better trading conditions, promoting sustainable farming techniques and alleviating poverty.

Adverbs + Not Only

NO

The students had not only worked diligently but also had effective engagement.

YES

The students had not only worked diligentlybut also engaged effectively.

Comparison (than)

NO

Merging two corporate companies is much more complicated than a merger of two SMEs.

Yes

Merging two corporate companies is much more complicated than merging two SMEs.

Practice Questions

1. Marketing should consider whether the plan is feasible, practical, and a possibility.

2.The lecturer expected that the students wouldgive a presentation by using PowerPoint and they would answer questions from the audience.

Marketing should consider whether the plan is feasible, practical, and possible.

The lecturer expected that the students would give a presentation, use PowerPoint and answer questions from the audience. [variations are possible]

For a detailed worksheet and another 6 exercises – buy the parallelism download below.

Parallelism Worksheet: 8 exercises

This worksheet provides an explanation of the key concepts of ‘parallelism’ and provides an error correction exercise to practise the key concepts. An awareness of this writing element really helps establish unity and readability in sentence structure. See Example worksheet. Level: ***** [B1/B2/C1] TEACHER MEMBERSHIP / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP