Parallel Structure Can Be Simply A Need for Repeated Words Correlative conjunctions must be placed right before the two elements that they are joining. Notice that the two elements that they join both are to plus a verb. The underlined words are the correlative conjunctions. Co means equal relative means that the elements are related in a particular way.Įxample: I wanted not only to go away to school but also to live in New England. How does one use correlative conjunctions? The underlined is the parallel structures joined by and. When I asked where he heard this, he confessed to playing Doom at a friend's house and he described how he had blown the heads off demons and how he has reloaded quickly so that they wouldn't get away. Let us revise the last student's sentence about Doom. Then check to see if the elements themselves need to be made the same construction. How does one correct the parallel structure?Īdd any needed coordinating conjunctions or correlative conjunctions. Reloading should have been another how clause and should have been connected to the first verb with a coordinating conjunction.
But on closer investigation, we discover that it can not be a participle because it would have to modify demons. What is reloading? It is an ing verb by itself therefore, it must be a gerund or a participle. He is the subject described is the verb how he had blown the heads off demons is the direct object of described. Notice the sentence part that I have underlined. Now this sentence is typical of errors in parallelism that I see in student papers. Let us look at another student sentence: When I asked where he heard this, he confessed to playing Doom at a friend's house and he described how he had blown the heads off demons reloading quickly so they wouldn't get away. For example, in the sentence above about the quarter horse, the three verbs skipped, pranced, was sashaying are not parallel because was sashaying is an ing word and the other two end in ed.
Grammatically parallel means in the same form. If the conjunction or pair is connecting two or more equal structures, check to see if the structures are grammatically parallel. Then look at each of the conjunctions or, in the case of the correlative conjunctions, look at the pairs of conjunctions. Go through your paper and circle the coordinating conjunctions and the correlative conjunctions. Most textbooks deal with parallel structures in their simplest forms.Įxample of a simple nonparallel structure: The quarter horse skipped, pranced, and was sashaying In thesis statements there is a need for parallel structures if the writer is using a forecasting thesis statement, one that gives the major points. The above sentence was a thesis statement of a student's essay. To show that the elements are equal, the elements are usually joined by the coordinating conjunctions or the correlative conjunctions and should be structured grammatically the same.Įxample: Video games are beneficial to children by helping them in future jobs, for health reasons, and A parallel structure is used when the writer has two or more elements in a sentence that are equal in importance.
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