2. Comparisons should be couched in parallel constructions
whenever that is possible and appropriate.
The inherent vice of capitalism is
the unequal sharing of blessings;
the inherent virtue of socialism is
the equal sharing of miseries.
Winston Churchill
3. Parallelism shows that two or more ideas are equally
important by stating them in a grammatically parallel
form:
Nouns line up with nouns
Verbs line up with verbs
Phrases line up with phrases
Parallelism can lend clarity, elegance, and symmetry
to what you say.
4. I
Came;
I
Saw;
I conquered.
Julius Caesar
Using three verbs, Caesar makes coming, seeing, conquering
all of equal importance. He implies that for him, conquering
was as easy as coming and seeing.
5. We look for signs
in every strange
event; we search
for heroes in every
unknown face.
Alice Walker
Walker stresses our
searching by making the
second half of this
sentence exactly parallel
6. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and
sweat. Winston Churchill
Churchill uses four nouns to identify
what he offers the British people in
wartime.
7. . . . AND THAT GOVERNMENT OF THE
PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE
PEOPLE, SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE
EARTH. Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln uses three
prepositional phrases to
describe the essential
characteristics of
American democracy.
8. On all these shores there are echoes of past and future: of the
flow of time, obliterating yet containing all that has gone before.
Rachel Carson
Carson uses two prepositional phrases about time, and then a pair
of participles to contrast its effects.
9. We must indeed all
hang together, or
most assuredly we shall
all hang separately.
Benjamin
Franklin
Franklin uses two parallel clauses to stress the difference
between two equally pressing alternatives.
10. Correlatives are words or phrases used in pairs to join
words, phrases, or clauses. These are the principal
correlatives that work together both. . .and, not
only. . .but also, either . . .or,
neither. . .nor, and whether. . .or.
•Before the Polish strikes of 1980, both the Hungarians
and the Czechs tried in vain to defy Soviet authority.
•His speech not only outraged his opponents, but
also cost him the support of his own party.
•Near the end of the story, Daniel Webster threatens
to wrestle with the devil either on Earth or in hell.
11. Faulty Parallelism
•The French, the Italians,
Spanish, and Portuguese
have their own language.
•It was both a long
ceremony and boring.
Corrected Version
•The French, the
Italians, the Spanish,
and the Portuguese
have their own
language.
•The ceremony was
both long and boring.
How are these
corrected?
12. In the last minute of the game, John intercepted
the football, evaded the tacklers, and a touchdown
was scored.
A time not for words, but action.
My income is smaller than my husband.
He is strong and a tough competitor.
The new coach is a smart strategist, an effective
manager, and works hard.
Either you must grant his request or incur his
wrath.
