The Importance of Parallelism in Writing (Grammar Rules)
In writing, parallelism is the act of writing things (especially things in a list) in a consistent manner. Parallelism can be achieved on a sentence level and on a more structural level. But some writers may wonder, “Why is parallelism so important in writing?”
(How to Write Dates Correctly in Sentences.)
The simple answer is that parallelism improves the consistency and clarity of any piece of writing. This means that readers have an easier time understanding the intent and purpose of a piece of writing, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.
In this post, we’ll look at some examples of parallelism in different situations and how it improves the clarity of writing.
Parallelism on a Sentence Level
On the sentence level, parallelism most frequently shows up as a list. For instance, a writer may want to indicate what a person or group of people are doing.
In our make believe example, the group went out on a Friday night to do the following:
Play a couple rounds of bowling.First, eat some dinner at a local restaurant.After work, unwind a little bit.Finish the night by watching a movie.
So using this example, how do we write this using parallelism? If we just follow the bulleted list, we’d end up writing something unwieldy like:
The group went out on a Friday night to play a couple rounds of bowling, first, eat some dinner at a local restaurant, after work, unwind a little bit, and finish the night by watching a movie.
While someone may be able to sift through this to figure out what happened, it’s not a super clear sentence. But we can tighten it a little by recognizing that the third bullet point applies to all the other points and come up with something like:
The group went out to unwind after work on Friday night to play a couple rounds of bowling, first, eat some dinner at a local restaurant, and finish the night be watching a movie.
This gets a little closer, but it would be even more clear if we put it in order and used verbs for each bullet point. Something like this would be great:
On Friday night, the group unwound after work by eating dinner at a local restaurant, bowling a couple rounds, and watching a movie.
This sentence gives a very clear picture of what the make believe group did on a Friday night and does it in the correct order.
Parallelism on a Structure Level
Parallelism is important for clarity on a sentence level, but it’s also very important for the structure of articles, lists, and more. For instance, this article has two Bheads, and I used parallelism by making both a variation of “Parallelism on a (blank) Level.” However, I often come up against this when editing lists of tips.
Let’s make a list of tips for parallelism:
Consistency is key. Use similar word and phrase types.Make a list of items.Break things out as much as possible.You’ll want to consider the purpose of your list.The list should be in an order that makes sense.
This list of parallelism tips is not using parallelism in an effective way at all. So how do we fix this? A good place to start is by following the advice in the first bullet point:
Use similar word and phrase types for each tip.Make a list of items.Break things out as much as possible.Consider the purpose of your list.Order the list in a way that makes sense.
As you can see, I decided to use an active verb to start each bullet point. This consistency improves the clarity. Don’t take this to mean that every list should start with active verbs; the important point is that the list is consistent.
If I wanted to take this list to the next level, I would follow the advice in the fifth bullet point and order the list in a way that makes the most sense. Maybe something like this:
Consider the purpose of your list.Make a list of items.Break things out as much as possible.Order the list in a way that makes sense.Use similar words and phrase types for each tip.
There are times when writers might quibble over things like the appropriate order or whether it’s better use an active verb or noun to start each section, but these tips should show the importance of parallelism and how considering parallelism in your own writing can improve clarity and concision.