Explanation
What Is Parallel Structure? Making a sentence parallel simply involves making the sentence balanced. The laws of parallelism: Check parallelism when you see: Lists, Comparisons, Standard phrases, Pronouns, Conjunctions. 1. Balancing Lists Incorrect: She went swimming, running, and danced all night. Correct: She went swimming, running, and dancing all night. 2. Balancing Comparison Same form on both sides (verb <-> verb, noun <-> noun, gerund <-> gerund, to+verb <-> to+verb). Correct: Jefferson liked participating more than he liked playing basketball. 3. Standard Phrases Fixed word patterns that come in pairs. Both sides MUST be parallel: 4. Balancing Pronouns Keep pronouns consistent. Incorrect: One should always do what you want. Correct: One should always do what one wants. 5. Balancing Two Sides of a Conjunction Words joined by and / but / or must be in the same form. Correct: To prepare for the party, we should set the table and make the pasta.