College Composition / Unit 6 CMP 0141 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Repairing Parallelism
The idea
Repairing faulty parallelism means finding the items that should match and rewriting the odd one out.
In practice
Work in order. First, find the joining words, and, or, but, and the commas of a list. Second, list the items they join. Third, name the form of each: noun, verb, i n g phrase, to phrase, or clause. Fourth, identify the form most items share. Fifth, rewrite the odd item into that form. Take "I start my day with breakfast, exercising and checking the news." Breakfast is a noun, while the others begin with verbs, so rewrite: "I start my day by eating breakfast, exercising and checking the news." Sixth, reread to make sure the shared opening word, here by, fits every item.
Where people slip
Matching form must not change meaning. If one item really is a different kind of idea, it may belong in its own sentence rather than forced into the list.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for College Composition