PARALLELISM OR PARALLEL STRUCTURE

Prepared by Ms. Teref

What do we already know?

“He had been prepared to lie, to bluster, and to remain sullenly unresponsive; but, reassured by the good-humored intelligence of the Controller’s face, he decided to tell the truth, straightforwardly.”

By Aldous Huxley, Brave New World1. What effect does the repetition of infinitives

(to lie, to bluster, to remain) in the first clause have on the meaning of the sentence? How do these infinitives prepare you for the infinitive phrase (to tell the truth) in the second clause.

2. What is the function of the semicolon in Huxley’s sentence?

What do we know about this repetitive structure? Turn to your neighbor and discuss

a) what is being repeated

b) if there is a list (like a shopping list)

c) what effect the repetition has

d) what is being emphasized With your neighbor, to the best of your ability,

write your own definition of parallelism. Begin like this:

- Parallelism is __________________. The purpose of this structure is __________________.

Let’s dig deeper & see what lurks beneath… Could the sentence…He had been prepared to lie, to bluster,

and to remain sullenly unresponsive;

… be broken down into…- He had been prepared to lie.- He had been prepared to bluster.- He had been prepared to remain sullenly

unresponsive? Does the above look like a list?

What does each of the sentences below have in common?- He had been prepared to lie.- He had been prepared to bluster.- He had been prepared to remain sullenly

unresponsive. Could we think of “He had been

prepared” as a common denominator for the following list

- to lie- to bluster- to remain ?

Recap:

When you ELIMINATE the repetition “He had been prepared” in order to merge it into one phrase, what are you left with?

-He had been prepared to lie, to bluster

and to remain sullenly

unresponsive - BTW, what do we call AND (as well as BUT,

OR, NOR and other “FANBOYS”)?

Conclusion: “Parallel Ideas in a List” Parallel ideas are ideas which are equal in rank,

and they form a list: to lie, to bluster, to remain.

The ideas are joined by AND, BUT, OR , NOR (coordination, option 1).

In parallel structure, it is important to group similar ideas and items together so that they look like a list. 

The items in the list must be all nouns, all

adjectives, all infinitives, all prepositional phrases, all –ing phrases, or all clauses. 

Practice time: Warriner’s, p. 371,Exercise #1 Let’s REVISE (key word on the ACT) the

following sentences:1, 2, 4, 5, 6Please, do NOT copy the sentences from

the book because they are INCORRECT. Rather, revise them.

Another Type of Parallelism: Correlative Construction What conjunctions are usually paired with

the conjunctions below?e.g Fermina Daza is BOTH beautiful _____

smart. both … either… neither… not only… more… as… as much… no sooner… whether…

Another Type of Parallelism: Correlative Construction

both X …and Y either X…or Y neither X…nor Y not only X…but Y more X…than Y as X…as Y no sooner X… than

Y whether X… or Y

These words that go together are called correlatives.

CO= togetherRELATIVES = related to each other, like relatives

Correlatives – what about them? Rule 1: X AND Y must be the same

grammatical form. (teacher’s examples)

Rule 2: Correlatives must be placed IMMEDIATELY BEFORE X AND Y:

e.g.Florentino Ariza is both persistent and patient.

both X and Y both adjective and

adjective

Correlatives: one more examplee.g. Neither does Dr. Urbino feel

threatened by Florentino Ariza, nor does he think about him.

Neither X nor Y Neither clause nor clause

Practice time: Warriner’s, p. 371, Exercise #1 and p. 373, Exercise #3 Let’s REVISE (key word on the ACT) the

following sentences:p. 371, #1: 3, 8, 9, 10p. 372, #3: 2, 14Please, do NOT copy the sentences from

the book because they are INCORRECT. Rather, revise them.

Practice: Warriner’s p. 372-3 Revise the following sentences

by correcting faulty parallelism. DO NOT COPY THES SENTENCES!

1.Her friends not only were shocked by her failure but they felt a great disappointment.

2.The team both felt the satisfaction of victory and the disappointment of defeat.

Practice: Warriner’s p. 372-3 Revise the following sentences by

correcting faulty parallelism. DO NOT COPY THIS SENTENCE!!!

1. One of the accident victims suffered a broken arm, several broken ribs, and one of her lungs was punctured.

2. Pioneers came with hopes of being happy and to attain freedom in the new world.