Student – Language and Writer’s Craft: Parallel Structure
Grammar & Usage: Parallel Structure
Parallel structure consists of two or more words, phrases, or clauses that are similar in length and
grammatical form. A phrase is a group of related words in a sentence, such as a prepositional phrase,
participial phrases, infinitive phrases, and gerund phrases. A clause is a group of words containing both a
subject and a predicate. A clause can be dependent or independent. A dependent clause has both a
subject and a verb but cannot stand alone as a sentence. An independent clause can stand alone as a
complete sentence.
Syntax and Parallel Structure
Whether creating narratives or other forms or writing, writers use sentence structure (syntax) to create
the effects they want. Using parallel structure is one way of creating balanced sentence structure by
creating a series at the word, phrase, or clause level.

Words: simple nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, gerunds; e.g., “My guinea pig eats nuts,
seeds, and lettuce leaves.”

Phrases: prepositional phrases (prepositions followed by nouns); e.g., “My cat raced in the door,
onto the table, and into my lap.”

Clauses: parallel subject and verb; e.g., “We swept the floor, we dusted the mantle, and we
cooked a hot meal to welcome our guests.”
1. Look at the sentences below that use parallel structure (from “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham
Lincoln). Identify and highlight the parts that can be described as parallel.

“But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this
ground.”

“. . . government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
2. Which of the sentences above uses parallel prepositional phrases and which uses parallel clauses?
Parallel structure means using the same pattern of words in a series or in a compound structure to
show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance. Just as importantly, this syntax creates
balanced sentences that are powerful in their effect on readers and listeners.
Parallel structure is typical of powerful speeches. Following are more examples; these sentences are
from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:

“To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest [slavery] was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union, even by war…”

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in…”
3. Describe the parallelism used in the previous examples (as parallelism with words, phrases, or
clauses).
4. Mark the parallelism in the sentences below from John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.
“The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans— born in this century, tempered by war,
disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage,,,,”
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden,
meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of
liberty.”
5. Martin Luther King, in his “I Have a Dream” speech, takes parallelism one step further to create a
memorable form of repetition called anaphora. How would you describe this form of parallelism?
“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and
desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from
the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a
reality for all of God’s children.”
When similar elements do not have the same form, they are said to have faulty parallelism. Faulty
parallelism can easily be detected by looking for the pattern; it can be corrected by repeating the
pattern.