Brenham Writing Room
Created by D. Herring

 Parallelism in writing means that similar parts in a sentence (2 or more) must have the same structure.
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Their parts are comparable and balanced.
Allows writing to flow smoothly and helps avoid misunderstandings.
 When similar parts do not follow the same structure, you have created Faulty Parallelism.

 Use similar structures to express similar ideas.
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Put nouns with nouns
 Faulty (F): I enjoy basketball more than playing video games.
 Correct (C): I enjoy basketball more than video games.
Put verbs with verbs (and use same tense)
 F: On our anniversary, we ate, danced, and were singing.
 C: On our anniversary, we ate, danced, and sang.
Put adjectives with adjectives
 F: My history class was both interesting and a challenge.
 C: My history class was both interesting and challenging.

 When you present two or more items in a series joined by and or or , use similar form for each item.
– F: I am doing well in my English class, in my math class, and in history.
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F: I am doing well in my English class, in my math class, and my history class.
C: I am doing well in my English class, in my math class, and in my history class.

 In comparisons, the items being compared must have parallel structure.
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F: Driving to Austin is as fast as to fly.
C: Driving to Austin is as fast as flying.
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F: Buying textbooks is almost as expensive as tuition.
C: Buying textbooks is almost as expensive as paying tuition.
C: Textbooks are almost as expensive as tuition.

 When a sentence uses correlative conjunctions, the items joined by them must be parallel.
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F: My history course is both interesting and a challenge.
C: My history course is both interesting and challenging.
F: You must either make a C in the course or taking it again will be the consequence.
C: You must either make a C in the course or take it again.
F: I would rather work hard and pass than to repeat the course.
C: I would rather work hard and pass than repeat the course.