Parallel construction

Using parallelism to improve your writing

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Shutterstock / Tongsai / Landscape with two parallel roads that rise up and disappear in the distance. There are trees on both sides of the highway, and hills in the far distance.

Clients sometimes ask me why I make such substantial changes to their bullet points or lists. These changes all have ‘parallelism’ as a common feature.

What is parallelism?

If you look up ‘parallelism’ in a grammar textbook, you’ll see it is about keeping sentence elements in a parallel structure. In other words, keep your ‘apples with apples’ and your ‘oranges with oranges’. This sentence structure further reinforces the relationship between those sentence elements.

Parallel construction is achieved by keeping the same grammatical form between the elements.

Lists that consist of verbs or nouns

Parallel construction is very important between items in lists. These lists can be bullet lists or lists within sentences, and they can consist of verbs or nouns.

Here is an example of non-parallel construction within a bullet list.

The objectives of the assessment were to:

• assess the animal species present in the survey area

• identify endangered or critically endangered animals

• local activities that could potentially reduce animal nesting sites.

The last item on the list starts with a noun, rather than an action (verb) like the other two. The list could be rewritten as follows.

The objectives of the assessment were to:

• assess the animal species present in the survey area

• identify endangered or critically endangered animals

• report on local activities that could potentially reduce animal nesting sites.

By starting all three items in the bullet list with the same grammatical form (e.g. verbs), the items on the list are easier to read and it is easier to identify what is important within the list.

Here is another example.

Non-timber forest products include honey, seeds, medicinal plants and hunting.

Here, most of the items in the list are nouns except for the last one: ‘hunting’. To make the list parallel, the last item could be changed to a noun.

Non-timber forest products include honey, seeds, medicinal plants, fish and game.

Each point of the list should start with the same part of speech. For example, they could all be verbs (like the first example) or nouns (like the second example).

Parallel construction can also use other parts of speech, such as adjectives and adverbs.

Adjectives

Non-parallel: Cardboard packaging is lightweight, strong and can be recycled.

Parallel: Cardboard packaging is lightweight, strong and recyclable.

Adverbs

Non-parallel: First, patients were transported to the nearest hospital. Secondly, the patients were assessed for injuries.

Parallel: First, patients were transported to the nearest hospital. Second, the patients were assessed for injuries.

Aside from lists, there are other indications that parallel construction is needed in a sentence, such as when coordinating or correlative conjunctions are used, or if elements are being compared.

Elements connected by coordinating conjunctions

One way of determining that parallel construction should be used is if the sentence has elements linked by coordinating conjunctions, such as and, but, or and yet.

Non-parallel: Businesses have been required to change strategies due to government restrictions during the pandemic, such as implementing travel bans, supporting employees to work from home and processes to allow for appropriate physical distancing.

Parallel: Businesses have been required to change strategies due to government restrictions during the pandemic, such as implementing travel bans, supporting employees to work from home and redesigning processes to allow for appropriate physical distancing.

Elements being compared

Another indication that parallel construction should be used is if items are being compared or contrasted.

Non-parallel: The study proponents preferred responding in person rather than a survey.

Parallel: The study proponents preferred responding in person rather than responding to a survey.

Elements linked by correlative conjunctions

Elements that are linked using correlating conjunctions, such as either…or, not only…but also, and both…and, should also have parallel construction.

Non-parallel: We scrutinise not only the energy density of the batteries but also how long they live and their load characteristics.

Parallel: We scrutinise not only the energy density of the batteries but also their longevity and load characteristics.

Parallelism is important in writing. As mentioned before, parallelism can help reinforce the relationship between elements in a sentence. Parallelism can also make your writing easier to understand and more logical in structure. Writing with parallel construction tends to create a characteristic rhythm to the text, which can assist the reader with retaining the information.

Most importantly, paying attention to parallel construction in writing improves the grammar, and thus, the professionalism of the text, adding sophistication and integrity to your publications.