LESSON

7
Parallelism

Parallel means two things (lines, objects, etc.) running next to

each other, having the same space between them at all points.
For example, look at the word “paral- lel” itself – the two ls in the
middle are parallel to one another. Remember the spelling of the
word, and you can remember its meaning; remember the mean-
ing of the word and you can remember its spelling! There aren’t
many words in English as convenient as that!

If two things are parallel, then we could consider them to be

similar like objects in a mirror. Thus, parallelism in writing means
parts of a sentence which have the same features.

Rules of Parallelism
There are a few important things to remember in parallelism, and
they, fortunately, adhere to a few simple rules. Basically, when
you are creating a list or a comparison, you want to create
balance and simplicity in the sentence by having all parts the
same. That means:

1. Keep nouns with nouns

Example:
  Incorrect: He enjoys football more than playing baseball.

 Correct: He enjoys football more than baseball.

Why? In the first (incorrect) example, we have a noun

(football) for the first part, and then a verb (playing baseball) for
the second. We need to either make both parts nouns or both
parts verbs.

2. Keep verbs with verbs, and keep them in the same tense

Example:

 Incorrect: Last weekend we ran, swam, and went bowling.

 Correct: Last weekend we ran, swam, and bowled.

 Correct: Last weekend, we went running, swimming, and

bowling.

Why? In the incorrect example, we are mixing verb tenses.

Although we have three verbs and no nouns or adjectives, it is
important to keep the verbs in the same tense. In the second
example, which is technically correct, we use the past simple (ran
etc.) but it sounds a little weird. In the third example, we use past
continuous, where the “-ing” form of all three verbs is the same.

3. Keep adjectives with adjectives

Example:

 Incorrect: The movie was fascinating and informed me

about a lot of things.

 Correct: The movie was fascinating and informative.

Why? In the incorrect example, we mix adjective (fascinating)

and verb (in- formed), whereas in the correct example we change
to the adjective form (in- formative) so that we have two
adjectives.

4. Articles and prepositions must apply to the first item in a

list, or to all items

Example:

 Incorrect: The Chinese, the Japanese, Koreans, and

Mongolians all come from East Asia.

 Correct: The Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Mongolians

all come from East Asia.

 Incorrect: He looked in the fridge, on the counter, and

stovetop for his dinner.

 Correct: He looked in the fridge, on the counter, and on the

stovetop for his dinner.

Why? One of the important functions of parallelism is keeping

a sentence logical and easy to understand. Switching from using
articles and prepositions to not using them is confusing. We need
to either use them with the first item in a list (such as in the first
correct example above) or with all of them (such as in the second
correct example).

An Extra Rule
This is not technically part of parallelism, but in parallelism, you
might see a lot of commas used. I always use the Oxford Comma
because it makes one’s writing so much clearer and more logical.
I highly recommend you use it, too.

When to Use Parallelism

Here I will explain some situations when we can employ the above
four rules to make our writing better. These types of situation will
arise in all sorts of writing, including – potentially – both tasks in
the IELTS writing exam.

In pairs and lists

If you are using“or” or “and” to form a list of items or ideas, you
should ensure that all items or ideas in the list are presented
using the same or similar form.

Example:

 Incorrect: He is good at studying history, English, and

speaking French.

 Incorrect: He is good at studying history, in English class,

and French.

 Correct: He is good at studying history, English, and French.

Why? Hopefully, by now, we can see the problems with the

first two exam- ples. When you’re making lists like this, and
include multiple items or ideas, we have to watch out for mistakes
like these.

In comparisons
Example:

 Incorrect: Walking home is as fast as to drive.

 Correct: Walking home is as fast as driving.

 Incorrect: Buying an iPhone is almost as expensive as a

new laptop.

 Correct: Buying an iPhone is almost as expensive as buying

a new laptop.

 Correct: An iPhone is almost as expensive as a new laptop.

 Why? Make sure that the two things you’re comparing
(walking and driving; iPhones and laptops) are presented in the
same way. This looks different from the list form previously
explored, but the technique for fixing mistakes is just the same.

With paired words

Example:

 Incorrect: Learning IELTS by watching TED videos is both

interesting and a convenience.

 Correct: Learning IELTS by watching TED videos is both

interesting and convenient.

 Incorrect: She said she’d prefer to work hard to learn

English than failing her exam.

 Correct: She said she’d prefer to work hard to learn English

than fail her exam.

Why? Once again, we can see how different items in a

sentence must be pre- sented as parallels – i.e. with the same
structure. With paired words we often see “and,”“either,”“rather,”
etc. used to join words or phrases. Make sure that these are the
same; for example, in the first instance we needed two adjectives,
and in the second we needed the verb tenses to be the same.

Why Use Parallelism in the IELTS?

The IELTS writing exam is a fantastic test of English proficiency.
There is no way to cheat or trick the system. You simply have to
demonstrate your English level by writing an honest piece of
work. The examiner will mark you on the following criteria:

 task achievement

 coherence and cohesion

  lexical resource

 grammatical range and accuracy

The last point on the list is “grammatical range and

accuracy.”This means hav- ing a variety of sentence structures
(simple, compound, complex, compound- complex) and a mastery
of verb tenses. Parallelism is something that most students don’t
fully understand, yet it is not difficult to learn. I teach this to my
students in one 90 minutes class, and by the end of the lesson,
they understand it so well they are sick of my examples!

Like learning how to use a comma or semi-colon, it is not

difficult, yet it is incredibly impressive. Your examiner will see your
writing and mark you higher than other students on that basis.

Of course, like I said, there is no cheating the system – if all

you know how to do is make your writing parallel and punctuated,
it doesn’t help. But it is a huge boost to your armory of English
language skills and will be a pleasant surprise for the examiner.

An IELTS Example of Parallelism

Let’s look at an incorrect example from an IELTS Writing Task 1
essay:

As a general trend, the chart shows that while the

unemployment rate in the United States gradually decreased
over the period shown, in Japan there was a significant
increase.

Why is this incorrect? Because in the first part we use the

phrase “gradually decreased” (an adverb + verb) and in the
second we say “a significant increase” (adjective + noun). We
should rephrase it to give parallelism thusly:
 As a general trend, the chart shows that while the
unemployment rate in the United States gradually decreased
over the period shown, in Japan it significantly increased.

Let’s correct the following faulty parallelism from:

According to the data from the graph, in March 1993, 7% of

Ameri- cans were unemployed, whereas the unemployment
rate in Japan was just 2.4%.

To:

According to the data from the graph, in March 1993, 7% of

Americans were unemployed, whereas just 2.5% of Japanese
were unemployed.

Practice
Exercise 1:
Directions: Edit these sentences to create parallel structure.
1. Mike likes to listen to rock music and reading mystery novels.

 Mike likes to listen to rock music and read mystery novels.

2. Julia is in charge of stocking the shelves, writing orders, and to

sell computers.

 __________________________________________________________.

3. My grandfather’s favorite pastime is to eat in trendy

restaurants and visiting art galleries.

 __________________________________________________________.

4. While in France, my nephew spent his time studying

French, working in a restaurant, and he jogged along the Seine
River every morning.

 __________________________________________________________.

5. Joan decided to paint her office, to add some new curtains, and
that the rug needs dry cleaning.

 __________________________________________________________.

Exercise 2:
Directions: Rewrite the sentences and fix non-parallel elements.
Combine sentences, if necessary.

1. He was handsome, brave, and the sort of person who would do

anything for you.

 He was handsome, brave, and generous.

2. I was afraid of the river. It had a fast current, big waves and it
was cold.

 __________________________________________________________.
3. That high school has many rules. Students need to wear
uniforms, arrive before 8am and they cannot bring their
Smartphone to school.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

4. The room was beautiful, the service was impeccable, and I've
never tasted better food in my entire life.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

5. Being a nurse is a good career because of the high salary,

vacations and schedules.

 __________________________________________________________.

6. It is dangerous to be living in this world today because of war,

unemployment and not enough money.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

7. Cooking and eating at home is a good idea for students

because it is saves time, money and it is easy to do.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

8. With Heather as your English teacher, you will read classic

novels, lots of notes will be taken, and you will thoroughly enjoy
the class.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.
9. When the weather is warm, my sneakers are laced up, I go to
the park, and I run three miles.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

10. We hate having dinner at Aunt Ida’s house because she is a

vegan health nut. Baked tofu, vegetables that are steamed, and
decaffeinated tea do not make a satisfying meal!

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

11. With the humans out of the house, Skeeter had to decide
either to shred a roll of toilet paper or if he wanted to chew
another hole in the sofa arm.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

12. We searched the car trunk, on the pantry shelves, and the top
of the refrigerator, but we could not find the box of cornflakes that
we do remember buying

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.

13. After Amanda cashes her paycheck, the money goes to her
savings account, cappuccino fund, and toward her credit card
balance.

 ___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________.