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! Must Knows Review

VERBAL

V 7. Parallelism " SC "

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There are Common Triggers that

7.2 Alert Us to Check for Proper
Parallelism

Must Know: #
There are firmly established triggers
that alert us to check for proper
parallelism. Each time we encounter
one of these triggers in a sentence, we
check to be sure that the elements in
that sentence are parallel.

Parallelism Has Little to Do with How

7.3
a Sentence Sounds to Your Ear

Must Know: #
Parallelism has little to do with how a
sentence sounds. Instead, parallelism
has everything to do with how a
sentence is structured. Don’t rely on
your “ear”!

FANBOYS Always Alert Us to Check

7.4
for Proper Parallelism

Must Know: #
The coordinating conjunctions
(FANBOYS): For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet,
So.

Must Know: #
The FANBOYS conjunctions are always
parallelism triggers. A structure built
around one of the FANBOYS must be
parallel. Thus, whenever we encounter
one of the FANBOYS, we must check to
see whether the sentence uses proper
parallelism.

Must Know: #
The FANBOYS conjunction “and” is the
most common type of parallelism
marker that we’ll encounter. Whenever
we see an “and” in a sentence, we must
check to see whether proper
parallelism is maintained.

How to Determine Whether a

7.4.1 Structure Built Around a FANBOYS
Is Parallel

Must Know: #
Each of the elements connected by a
FANBOYS conjunction must work
logically with what introduces those
elements.

Must Know: #
To determine whether a sentence uses
proper parallelism across FANBOYS
conjunctions:
1. Notice a FANBOYS conjunction in the
sentence.
2. Determine what elements the
FANBOYS conjunction connects.
3. Locate the word(s) that introduce(s)
the elements connected by the
FANBOYS conjunction.
4. Determine whether the elements
connected by the FANBOYS
conjunction work logically with what
introduces those elements.

Structures Build Around FANBOYS

7.5
are Essentially Lists of Two Items

Must Know: #
Structures built around FANBOYS
conjunctions are two-element lists.
These lists must maintain proper
parallel structure.

7.6 Parallelism in Lists

Must Know: #
A list consists of two or more items in a
series, often separated by commas. The
items in a list must be parallel.

7.6.1 Carry Over in Lists

Must Know: #
“Carrying over” refers to the concept
that certain elements of a structure
involving a list are understood to be
repeated throughout the list, although
these elements are not explicitly
rewritten.

Must Know: #
The exercise of using parentheses and
then distributing (carrying over) is
important because it’s an easy, effective
way to determine whether items in a list
make logical sense.

How to Determine Whether the

7.6.2
Items in a List are Parallel

Must Know: #
The words that carry over to the items
in the list must make logical sense with
the items in the list.

Repeating Elements Essential to

7.6.3 What Introduces a List Cannot Be
Haphazardly Placed in a List

Must Know: #
Repeating elements such as “to,” “from,”
and “that” cannot be haphazardly
placed in a list if they are essential to
what introduces the list.

Must Know: #
A repeating element that is essential to
what introduces a list must either
appear once, before the first item in the
list, OR appear in every one of the items
in the list. Such a repeating element
cannot appear haphazardly in the list.

Must Know: #
A repeating element that is NOT
essential to what introduces a list does
not have to carry over to or appear
before every item in the list.

Sometimes Prepositions Must be

7.6.5 Repeated for a List to Clearly
Convey a Logical Meaning

Must Know: #
Sometimes, in order for a sentence
including a list to clearly convey a
logical meaning, it’s necessary to repeat
a preposition, such as “for,” “of,” “to,”
“in,” “by,” or “because of” by placing the
preposition before every item in the list.

Sometimes “That” Must be

7.6.6
Repeated to Make a List Clear

Must Know: #
Sometimes, in order for a sentence
including a list to clearly convey a
logical meaning, it’s necessary to repeat
a “that” by placing it before every item
in the list.

Must Know: #
When two noun clauses are connected
by “and,” it is not necessary, though it is
OK, for there to be a comma before
“and.”

7.6.7 Nested Lists

Must Know: #
Sometimes we’ll encounter a list within
a list. We call these structures nested
lists. In other words, a nested list is a list
within one of the elements of another
list.

Must Know: #
The nested list will always be a
secondary list within a larger list, which
we refer to as the outer list.

Must Know: #
The presence of more than one “and” is
a hallmark of a nested list and is an
important parallelism trigger.

Must Know: #
Given a nested list, it’s important to
keep straight the outer list and the
nested list. Always ask, “What’s the
outer list?” and “What’s the nested list?”

Understanding the Carry Over

7.6.8
Within a Nested List

Must Know: #
Whatever introduces a nested list is
understood to carry over to each of the
elements in the nested list without
being explicitly written.

Must Know: #
In a situation involving a nested list, the
essential elements that introduce a
nested list are understood to carry over
to each of the items in the nested list.
Therefore, the elements of the nested
list must work logically with whatever
introduces them.

Must Know: #
When we encounter a nested list, we
must be careful to keep straight the
carry over in the nested list and the
carry over in the outer list.

Correct Answers that Fix a Broken

7.6.9
List by Changing It to a Nested List

Must Know: #
It’s common to encounter SC questions
in which the original sentence contains
a broken list (a list constructed without
proper parallelism). In these situations,
it’s common to find that the correct
answer fixes the broken list by changing
it into a nested list.

Must Know: #
If an element is no longer in a list, it
need not be parallel with the rest of the
list.

Must Know: #
When the original sentence contains a
broken three-part list, a correct answer
may fix the list by detaching the last
element from the list and creating
instead a two-item list, with a nested list
in the first item in the list.

Correlative Conjunctions Must be

7.7
Parallel

Must Know: #
The most important correlative
conjunctions to learn are “not only … but
also,” “not only … but … as well,” “not …
but,” “both … and,” “either … or,” “neither
… nor.”

Must Know: #
When an expression employing the
correlative conjunction “not only … but
also,” “not only … but … as well,” “not …
but,” “both … and,” “either … or,” or
“neither … nor” appears in a sentence,
we must be on the lookout for errors in
parallel structure, because items that
are part of such correlative
constructions must be parallel.

Whatever Precedes the First Part of

7.7.2 a “Not Only … But Also” Structure
Carries Over to the Second Part.

Must Know: #
Whatever precedes the first part of a
“not only … but also” correlative
structure is understood to carry over to,
without being written in, the second part
of the correlative structure.

Must Know: #
An illogical, redundant sentence will
result from repeating the element
preceding “not only” after “but also.”

Whatever Appears After “Not Only”

7.7.3 Does Not Carry Over to After “But
Also.”

Must Know: #
In a “not only … but also” structure,
elements that follow “not only” are not
understood to carry over to after “but
also.” So, if any of those elements are
necessary after “but also,” they must be
repeated.

The Placement of Words Between

7.7.4 “But” and “Also” Can Result in an
Illogical Sentence.

Must Know: #
When “not only … but also” is used,
must pay careful attention to the words
in between “but” and “also,” because
the placement of words between “but”
and “also” can mess up the parallelism.

Carry-Over and other Correlative

7.7.6
Conjunctions

Must Know: #
What precedes the first part of a
correlative conjunction carries over to
the second part of the correlative
construction.

Must Know: #
Elements that follow the first part of a
correlative conjunction do not carry
over to what follows the second part of
the correlative conjunction.

Other Structures that Demand

7.8
Parallelism

Must Know: #
Each of the following structures
demands parallelism.
X rather than Y; mistake X for Y; prefer X
to Y; range from X to Y; more X than Y
(in certain contexts)

Must Know: #
In order for the structures “X rather than
Y,” “mistake X for Y,” “prefer X to Y,”
“range from X to Y,” or “more X than Y”
to be parallel, X and Y must be
grammatically similar.

Verbs That Are in Different Tenses

7.9.1
Can be Perfectly Parallel.

Must Know: #
Verbs that are in different tenses can be
parallel.

Active Voice and Passive Voice in

7.9.2
the Same List Can be Parallel

Must Know: #
There is nothing wrong with having
active voice verbs and passive voice
verbs together in a list.

Must Know: #
When items appear in a series, verb
voice can change from active to passive
without violating the rules of parallelism,
as long as each element in the list
works logically with the essential
element or elements that introduce the
list.

Clauses in a Sentence Do Not

7.9.3 Have to Be Structured in the Same
Way to Be Parallel.

Must Know: #
Clauses in a sentence do not have to
be structured in the same way to be
parallel because clauses are parallel to
each other in that they all have subjects
and verbs.

When, other than in degree of

parallelism, two versions of a
7.10
sentence seem equally correct,
choose the more parallel version.

Must Know: #
The strategy of choosing the choice
that creates the more parallel version of
a sentence should be used only as a
last resort when we don’t see any other
decision point that we can use to
choose between two choices in an SC
question.

Gerunds and Infinitives – Special

7.11
Cases

Must Know: #
The GMAT prefers versions that do not
use gerunds and infinitives together in
lists.

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