Our grammar teachers get excited when we “line things up” with look-alike words and phrases, especially within lists. Let’s say you want to talk about three activities you do in your free time. You need to list them using the same “part of speech”—like this: I like swimming, writing, and organizing my closets. (Not really). See how I used the gerund form of the verb with the “ing” ending for each activity?
Compare my first example to this one: I like swimming, writing, and to organize my closets. Note that was has two verbs in the gerund form and one in the infinitive form. Uh oh, –not parallel.
Further, your paragraphs may contain some parallel sentences. These sentences would contain basically the same number of words or beats. Without the overuse of transitional words and phrases, the parallel structure provides organizational cues to the reader in subtle ways. As well, it would produce a repetitive quality to your writing that may resemble a piece of music that repeats and crescendos to the climax.
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Continue Module 4, Crafting: What is Voice?
