For many projects you’ll notice parallel structure being mentioned in the creative brief. Especially if the project involves writing bullet lists. But what exactly does parallel structure mean?
It simply means using the same pattern of words in order to show that two or more sentences or bullets have the same importance.
Our brains are wired to seek out patterns and parallelism can help with that. If you think about some of the more famous speeches you can see the patterns that parallel structure can create.
Example
The opening of A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
We don’t write speeches or novels but we do write a lot of content where parallelism makes the piece easier to read, more enjoyable and memorable.
Parallel Structure in a Sentence
When writing sentences or paragraphs, it’s important to not mix forms. Use the same types of words throughout.
Examples
Not Parallel
Sue likes swimming, hiking and to ride her bicycle
Parallel
Sue likes swimming, hiking and riding her bicycle
Not Parallel
The student was asked to write her report accurately, quickly and in a detailed manner
Parallel
The student was asked to write her report accurately, quickly and thoroughly
Parallel Structure in Bullet Lists
Bullet lists help to organize related information in one, easy to read place. When it comes to product descriptions, many shoppers completely skip over the paragraph content and go straight to the bullets. So, it’s important that they are concise, informative and easy to read.
Take a look at this example of a bullet list that isn’t parallel and notice how clunky it reads.
- Anyone living in Chicago should know where to find the best pizza
- Ride the L
- Standing on the Skydeck
- Run under the Cloud Gate
It’s clunky, awkward and difficult to read because the bullets don’t match. The first is a complete sentence and the others are simple phrases. To add to the awkwardness, they all use different verb tenses.
But, it’s easy to fix the clunkiness by using a parallel structure.
Anyone living in Chicago should be proficient in the following areas:
- Finding great pizza
- Riding the L
- Standing on the Skydeck
- Running under the Cloud Gate
All of these bullet points begin with ‘ing’ action verbs. Making it much easier to read.
Proofreading Tips
Follow these simple proofreading tips to help ensure your writing is parallel.
- Skim the piece and pause at words like and, and or to check that the words they join are parallel. If not, edit to make them parallel.
- If you have several lists or bullet lists in a piece (say a blog or buying guide), put them together in a column to ensure they are all parallel.
- Read your lists aloud. Do you hear the same kinds of sounds? For example, is there a list of ‘ing’ words, or is there a rhythm you can hear? If you find something is breaking that rhythm, double check your work to see if you need to make anything parallel.
And that’s parallelism in a nutshell. It is something that’s required on many of our writing projects. So learning how to write using the parallel structure and edit your work to ensure everything flows will help increase your content scores and minimize returns.