1. Balance is
key!

2. For effective writing, it is
important that components of
your sentences have balance.
This balanced arrangement is
called parallelism, or parallel
structure.

3. In other words, you want this:
Not this:

4.  FAULTY: At the garden store,
Larissa bought plastic flamingos,
ceramic gnomes, and a mermaid.
 PARALLEL: At the garden store,
Larissa bought plastic flamingos,
ceramic gnomes, and a concrete
mermaid.

5. Once you discover a non-parallel item in
a sentence, you have two solutions:
A. Make the non-parallel item conform to
match the other item(s).
 FAULTY: The giraffe has traits that seem
contradictory; it is gangly, graceful, and
has dignity.
 PARALLEL: The giraffe has traits that seem
contradictory; it is gangly, graceful, and
dignified.

6. Once you discover a non-parallel item in
a sentence, you have two solutions:
A. Change the other item(s) to match the
original non-parallel one.
 FAULTY: We spent the hour in the waiting
room reading old magazines, eating stale
cookies, and we wiggled on the hard plastic
chairs.
 PARALLEL: In the waiting room, we read
old magazines, ate stale cookies, and
wiggled on the hard plastic chairs.

7. I bought three items at the store:
a huge watermelon,
a frozen pizza,
and a magazine.

8. When Tony couldn’t find his jeans, he
looked
in the closet,
under the stairs,
and the

9. To prepare for the dinner, Mary
chopped vegetables
boiled pasta,
and

10.  If a sentence is parallel, draw a star,
rainbow, or unicorn by it.
 If a sentence is NOT parallel, write an
“FP” (FAULTY PARALLELISM) by the
sentence, then use editing marks to
make it right.