Paralellisms
S t y l i s h
Comfortable
S
t
y
l
i
s
h
These sentences are short. The rythmn is choppy. Also, the continuity is loosely tied together.
Comfortable
Sentences are easier to read when they have a smooth flow, rhythm and full content.
Brief
Pocket full of holes
I like swimming, cycling, golfing and sports.
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Brief
Pocket full of holes
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Those sentences are short, choppy and loosely tied together.
A sentence must contain a subject and verb. Most often, there will exist an object or an adjective that refers back to the subject. If there are several objects with a common subject and they are presented in separate sentences, both the verb and subject will be repeated. The result is a very choppy, repetitive and lengthy narrative.
The car is red. The car is sporty. The car is stylish. The car is attractive.
The car is red, sporty, stylish, and attractive.
Pitfalls and Traps
The party was full of family, friends, and dancing.
The car is red, sporty, stylish, and goes fast.
My girlfriend is pretty, likes to dance and can sing.
Rocky was jogging, jabbing, skipping and looked hot as he prepared for the fight.
I like cats, dogs, playing tennis, sport cars, and hate politics.
I like swimming, cycling, golfing and sports.
Most readers will not notice the error in this example. The problem is that all words in the parallelism are not of the same type. The first 3 are gerunds, whereas the last is a noun. A gerund is the noun form of a verb. It can be fixed by changing the noun sports into a gerund.
I like swimming, cycling, golfing and playing sports.
The party was full of family, friends, and dancing.
(also the verb's meaning changes)
This example is similar to the previous one because it has mixed a gerund with nouns. However it cannot be fixed by simply changing the form of a word because of the verb shift. Instead, the sentence is fixed by splitting it apart and using appropriate verbs.
The party was full of family and friends. They enjoyed dancing, eating and playing games.
The car is red, sporty, stylish, and goes fast.
Again, there is a mix of word types. The first 3 elements are adjectives and the last is a verb phrase. It can be fixed by changing the phrase into an adjective.
The car is red, sporty, stylish and fast.
My girlfriend is pretty, likes to dance and can sing.
This example goes too far by mixing in verb phrases. It cannot be easily fixed by changing a word type. Instead the intended concepts should be seperated and expressed more clearly.
My girlfriend is pretty and talented. She likes to sing and dance.
Rocky was jogging, jabbing, skipping and looked hot
as he prepared for the fight.
This example mixes an adjectival phrase with 3 verbs. Here it is better to remove the phrase from the parallelism and put it closer to its object.
Rocky looked hot as he prepared for the fight by jogging, jabbing and skipping.
I like cats, dogs, playing tennis, sports cars, and hate politics.
This example is not only wrong for mixing word types, but also for mixing concepts. Animals, sports, cars and politics have nothing in common. There is no way to save the parallelism. It is better to rewrite this in a more abstract form that associates them properly.
I have a variety of interests and few dislikes.
Prescribed usage -
Use parallelisms to give your sentences greater content and fluid rhythm.
Be sure that all elements share the same verb.
Be sure that all elements share the same subject or object.
Be sure that all elements are the same word type. (adjective, adverb, noun, gerund, verb)
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