Very few writers use parallelism correctly. Here’s an example from a Dear Abby letter published today. This sentence isn’t parallel and needs to be fixed:
He is intelligent, financially stable, and loves me and my son. NOT PARALLEL
Writing the sentence as if it were a poem can help you see where the problem lies:
He is
intelligent
financially stable
loves me and my son
“He is” doesn’t match “loves me and my son.”
A better sentence would have been:
He is
intelligent
financially stable
loving to me and my son
(He is intelligent, financially stable, and loving to me and my son.)
Or the sentence could have been written this way:
He is intelligent and financially stable, and he loves me and my son. CORRECT
The problems always arise with the third item in the list. Make sure it matches the other two – or make it a new sentence.
Here’s another non-parallel sentence. Can you see how to fix it? I’ll add a correction at the end.
We need to mop the floors, wash the windows, and the bathroom needs scrubbing.
We need to
mop the floors
wash the windows
the bathroom needs scrubbing
Correct version: We need to mop the floors, wash the windows, and scrub the bathroom.
OR: We need to mop the floors and wash the windows, and the bathroom needs scrubbing. CORRECT
Parallelism is impressive, important, and easy to learn.