The Century Handbook of Writing Part 14

PARALLEL STRUCTURE

When the structure of a sentence is simple and uniform, the important words strike the eye at once. Compare the following:

Parallel: Beggars must not be choosers.

Confusing: Beggars must not be the one who choose.

A reader gives attention partly to the structure of a sentence, and partly to the thought. The less we puzzle him with our structure, the more we shall impress him with our thought.

Parallel: Seeing is believing. [Attention goes to the thought.]

Confusing: Seeing is to believe. [Attention is diverted to _structure_.]

The reader's expectation is that uniform structure shall accompany uniform ideas, and that a departure from uniformity shall indicate a change of thought.

=Parallel Structure for Parallel Thoughts=

=30. Give parallel structure to those parts of a sentence which are parallel in thought. Do not needlessly interchange an infinitive with a participle, a phrase with a clause, a single word with a phrase or clause, a main clause with a dependent clause, one voice or mode of the verb with another, etc.=

Faulty: Riding is sometimes better exercise than to walk.

Right: Riding is sometimes better exercise than walking. [Or]

To ride is sometimes better exercise than to walk.

Faulty: He had two desires, of which the first was for money; in the second place, he wanted fame.

Right: He had two desires, of which the first was for money and the second for fame. [Or] He had two desires: in the first place, he wanted money; in the second, fame.

Faulty: His rival handled cigars of better quality and having a higher selling price.

Right: His rival handled cigars of better quality and higher price.

Faulty: When you have mastered the operation of s.h.i.+fting gears, and after a little practice you will be a good driver.

Right: When you have mastered the operation of s.h.i.+fting gears, and had a little practice, you will be a good driver. [Or]

After you master the gears and have a little practice, you will be a good driver.

Faulty. These are the duties of the president of a literary society:

(a) To preside at regular meetings, (b) He calls special meetings, (c) Appointment of committees.

Right: These are the duties of the president of a literary society:

(a) To preside at regular meetings, (b) To call special meetings, (c) To appoint committees.

Faulty: She was actively connected with the club, church, and with several organized charities. [Here parallelism is obscured by the omission from the second phrase of both the preposition and the article.]

Right: She was actively connected with the club, with the church, and with several organized charities.

Faulty: He was red-faced, awkward, and had a disposition to eat everything on the table. [The third element is like the others in thought, and should have similar form.]

Right: He had a red face, an awkward manner, and a disposition to eat everything on the table. [Or] He was red-faced, awkward, and voracious.

Note.--Avoid misleading parallelism. For ideas _different_ in kind, do _not_ use parallel structure.

Wrong: He was hot, puffing, and evidently had run very hard.

[The third element is unlike the others in thought; hence the _and_ is misleading.]

Right: He was hot and puffing; evidently he had run very hard.

Confusing: He was admired for his knowledge of science, and for his taste for art, and for this I too honor him. [The last _for_ gives a false parallelism to unlike thoughts.]

Better: He was admired for his scientific knowledge and for his artistic taste. I honor him for both these qualities.

Exercise:

1. The duties of the secretary are to answer correspondence, and keeping the minutes of the meetings.

2. This process is the most difficult; it costs the most; and is most important.

3. I make it a rule to be orderly, spend no money foolishly, and keep still when I have nothing to say.

4. The cotton is put up in bales about five feet in length and three feet wide and four thick, and one of them weighing about five hundred pounds.

5. Considerations of economy that one should bear in mind when planning a house are: first, a rectangular ground-plan; second, a one-chimney plan; third, to have only one stairway; fourth, eliminate as many doors as possible; fifth, the bathroom should be above the kitchen so as to reduce the cost of plumbing; and lastly, the rooms should be few and large rather than small and many of them.

=Correlatives=

Conjunctions that are used in pairs are called correlatives; for example, _not only_ ... _but also_ ..., _both_ ... _and_ ..., _either_ ... _or_ ..., _neither_ ... _nor_ ..., _not_ ... _or_ ..., _whether_ ... _or_ ....

=31. Correlatives should usually be followed by elements parallel in form; if a predicate follows one, a predicate should follow the other; if a prepositional phrase follows one, a prepositional phrase should follow the other; and so on.=

Faulty: He was not only courteous to rich customers but also to poor ones. [Here the phrases intended to be balanced against each other are _to rich customer's_ and _to poor ones_. As the sentence stands, it is the word _courteous_ that is balanced against _to poor ones_.]

Right: He was courteous not only to rich customers but also to poor ones.

Faulty: She could neither make up her mind to go nor could she decide to stay.

Right: She could neither make up her mind to go nor decide to stay. [Or] She could not make up her mind either to go or to stay.

Faulty: I talked both with Brown and Miller. [Here one conjunction is followed by a preposition and the other by a noun.]

Right: I talked with both Brown and Miller. [Or] I talked both with Brown and with Miller.

Exercise:

1. He was courteous to both friends and his enemies.