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PARALLELISM • “Parallel structures include word or phrase patterns that are similar. When ideas in a sentence or paragraph are similar, you can reinforce these similarities in meaning through creating parallel structures. Effective parallelism creates symmetry in sentences and adds force to your writing; it emphasizes the likeness between two or more ideas.” -Writing Center, University of Richmond
Examples of Parallelism • The Fellowship needs people who are determined, who are courageous, and who are resilient. • I came; I saw; I conquered. • Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. • Preston has three goals: to wake us up, to scare us to death, and to sell books.
Lists and series MUST be parallel! • These are WRONG: • Sam likes to eat, drink, and dancing. • It is a cooker, a pasteurizer and environmentally friendly. • Simple‑step cookbooks use basic ingredients, have easy‑to‑follow directions and cook divinely. • The candidates spent the day amid handshakes, sloganeering and a chance to meet with constituents.
Putting several parallel sentences together is a powerful technique! • He walked in. He sat down. He laid his gun on the table. • "In a land of great wealth, families must not live in hopeless poverty. In a land rich in harvest, children must not go hungry. In a land of healing miracles, neighbors must not suffer and die unattended. In a great land of learning and scholars, young people must be taught to read and write. "—Lyndon Bains Johnson (President of the United States) from his Inaugural Address in January, 1965.
I have a dream that one day… little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one dayevery valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
BALANCED SENTENCES • A balanced sentence is neatly divided between two parallel structures. • Do not pass GO; do not collect $200. • It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. • He wanted a Big Mac, but he had no money.
Your people shall be my people. • Many are called but few are chosen. • The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little. -F. D. Roosevelt
NOUN, ADJECTIVE and ADJECTIVE • Gandalf, tall and imperious, faced Wormtongue. • Merry cowered before the Nazgul, terrible and mighty. • Gandalf rode Shadowfax, swift and indefatigable, into the raging battle.
CUMULATIVE SENTENCES • 2 VARIETIES: • LOOSE SENTENCES • ADDITIONS AFTER THE MAIN CLAUSE • PERIODICSENTENCES • ADDITIONS BEFORE THE MAIN CLAUSE
Loose sentences (main clause at the start) • I would wait for him to arrive on his designated weekend, watching intently for the first sign of the pale yellow 1966 Dodge Dart with black racing stripes, listening for the rackety sound that the overstressed, oversized engine made, hoping that this weekend he would not have forgotten or found something better to do, waiting for one of the few precious days I would have as a memory -- his salt and pepper beard, his crisp, clear tenor voice, his cruel, thoughtless laugh at a child's expense.
Loose sentences (main clause at the start) • I pledge allegiance • to the flag • of the United States of America • and to the republic • for which it stands • one nation • under God • indivisible • with liberty and justicefor all.
Periodicsentences (main clause at the end) • When you can speak and know that he hears you, when you know that it's you he is dreaming of, and no one else, when you don't have to wish you were thinner or younger or taller or richer so he could love you more, when you can just show up and be yourself and you get to be loved, that's when you know love is real and you can trust it.
Periodicsentences (main clause at the end) • Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
Periodicsentences (main clause at the end) • If you’re a no-nonsense person, if you’re a straightforward writer and you expect the same of others, if you don’t have any patience with long-winded people—people, that is, who never come directly to the point, but instead waste your time in seemingly endless digressions, as if they were mentally incapable of putting first things first—then you will probably consider periodicsentences, such as the one you are reading right now, which looks like it may never come to an end, to be an exasperating waste of time.
Cumulative sentences: things to accumulate • Noun clusters (appositives) • Frodo, the bearer of the Ring,the hope of Middle-Earth, entered Mordor, land of despair,country of darkness.
