Professional Documents
Culture Documents
brought to you by
Grammar Bytes!,
©2019 by Robin L.
Simmons.
Parallel Structure
Do I maintain
parallelism Or should I
with a use an
participle? infinitive?
This
presentation
covers
distinguishing
between
parallel and
non-parallel
elements.
A parallelism item on an
objective test might look
like this . . .
Sample Item
Directions: Choose the sentence that has no errors in
structure.
A. Eileen bought new shoes for the party, a gold charm for
her mother, and to treat her best friend Maria to lunch.
B. Eileen decided to buy new shoes for the party,
purchasing a gold charm for her mother, and treating
her best friend Maria to lunch.
C. Eileen
Eileen purchased
purchasednewnewshoes
shoesforfor
thethe
party,
party,
a gold
a gold
charm for
charm forher
hermother,
mother,andand
lunch
lunchforfor
Maria,
Maria,
herher
bestbest
friend.
friend.
Items in a series must have
parallel structure.
Shane , , and .
Shane , , and .
Here is an example:
Shane , , and .
Shane , , and .
The problem looks like this:
Let’s see
how you
perform!
Item 1
A. Barking dogs, kittens that were meowing, and
squawking parakeets greet the pet shop
visitors.
B.
B. Barking
Barking dogs,
dogs,meowing
meowing kittens,
kittens,
andand
squawking
parakeets greet
squawking parakeets
the pet greet
shop visitors.
the pet shop
C. visitors.
Dogs that bark, kittens that meow, and
C. Dogs
parakeets
that bark,
squawking
kittensgreet
that meow,
the pet and
shop
visitors. squawking greet the pet shop
parakeets
visitors.
Item 2
A.
A. During
During class,
class,Samuel
Samuelspent
spenthishis
time
time
flirting
flirting
with
Brittney,
with Brittney,
eatingeating
candy,candy,
and doodling
and doodling
on the on
assignment
the assignment
sheet.
sheet.
B. During class, Samuel spent his time flirting with
Brittney, he ate candy, and doodling on the
assignment sheet.
C. During class, Samuel spent his time to flirt with
Brittney, to eat candy, and doodling on the
assignment sheet.
Item 3
A.
A. The manager
managerwanted
wantedstaff
staffwho
whoarrived
arrived
on on
time,
smiledsmiled
time, at the customers,
at the customers,
and didn’t
and snack
didn’t
on
the chicken
snack on the
nuggets.
chicken nuggets.
B. The manager wanted staff who arrived on time,
would be smiling at the customers, and would
not be snacking on the chicken nuggets.
C. The manager wanted staff who arrived on time,
smiled at the customers, and no snacking on
the chicken nuggets.
Item 5
A. After
After giving
givingJeremy
Jeremyher her phone
phone number,
number, Felicia
Felicia had
had to tolerate
to tolerate hisnight
his late latecalls,
nightstupid
calls,conversations,
stupid
conversations,
and requests for and requests
her math for her math
homework.
B. homework.
After giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia had
B. After givinghis
to tolerate Jeremy her phone
late night number,
calls, the Felicia
fact that he had
to tolerate
carried on his lateconversations,
stupid night calls, theand
factrequests
that he for
carried
her math onhomework.
stupid conversations, and requests for
C. her
Aftermath homework.
giving Jeremy her phone number, Felicia had
C. After givingbeing
to tolerate Jeremy her phone
woken up latenumber,
at night, Felicia
having had
to tolerate
stupid being woken
conversations, uphe
and late at night, having
constantly requested
stupid
her mathconversations,
homework. and he constantly requested
her math homework.
Quick Test, Part 2
Now try a
different
type!
Item 6