Parallelism In My Writing

• Parallel structure involves putting together elements of similar structure to achieve balanced writing. • Winston Churchill did not say: “I have nothing to offer but bleeding, toil, tears, and sweating.” • He said: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
• Churchill understood parallelism. Use parallelism in your own writing
• Good parallel structure improves the clarity of your writing. • To make your writing parallel, use the same grammatical form for all items in a list. Poor: Betty has intelligence, honesty, and she is funny. Improved: Betty has intelligence, honesty, and humour. Poor: Good writing requires you to plan outlines, write several drafts, and revision. Improved: Good writing requires you to plan outlines, write several
LET’S PRACTICE!!! • Many gases are invisible, odorless, and they have no taste. • Many gases are invisible, odorless, and tasteless.
• Mr. Foster is not only an excellent barber but also sings well.
• Mr. Foster is not only an excellent barber but also a good singer. Be able to Identify Parallelism used by Professional Writers
• Sentences or parts of a sentence are parallel when structures within them take the same form.
• Parallelism is important at the level of ▫ the word ▫ the phrase ▫ the clause Parallelism at Word level • “Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?” (-- Henry David Thoreau)
• In this sentence, the words hurry and waste, both nouns, follow the preposition with; hurry and waste are parallel. Parallelism at Word level (another example)
• “In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime.” (-- Henry David Thoreau)
• In this sentence, the words true and sublime, both adjectives, modify the pronoun something; true and sublime are parallel. Parallelism at Phrase level
• “Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man.” (Henry David