What do we want? Syntactic equality. When do we want it? Now! Parallel syntactic elements—words that serve the same function in a sentence—must be treated equally to foster peace, love, and (most importantly) understanding. The key is creating balance among similar words, phrases, and clauses in each sentence you write.
In the following sentence, for instance, the meaning is clear, but the sentence is clunky and stumbles to an end: Bernice likes eating cake, drinking coffee, and to read the Big Bad Book Blog. When the syntactic elements are treated equally, however, the sentence has much more poise: Bernice likes eating cake, drinking coffee, and reading the Big Bad Book Blog. A less concise but no less balanced version of the sentence could be the following: Bernice likes to eat cake, to drink coffee, and to read the Big Bad Book Blog. With a slight change in syntax to make the gerund or infinitive phrases parallel, the sentence now has a more refined demeanor. Plus, it’s more reader friendly.
Enforcing parallelism is a surefire way to guarantee readers will pick up what you put down. In the following sentence, for example, it is unclear what Martha actually likes: Martha likes saving whales and people. Does Martha like people and also saving whales, or does she like saving whales and saving people? Recasting the sentence with a parallel structure would clarify what Martha likes to do: Martha likes saving whales and spending time with people.
Parallelism is also effective in lists. I have several goals this year: to write a book; to publish my book; and to sell lots of copies of my book. The equal treatment of these elements effectively shows how they roll together under the banner of “goals for the year.”
Now that you’re aware of parallel structure, putting it into practice will become second nature and your writing will be better for it. Activists have never had it so good!
Tags: good writing, grammar, parallel, parallel structure, parallelism, syntactic elements, syntax, writing, writing techniques
