Parallelism. Do you know what it is? Have you figured out how to use it effectively in writing? Do you know how to give it a bit of a twist to give your words more punch? Walk with me through this chapter of Writing Tools. Let’s become better writers eh?
What is Parallelism?
Parallelism is the use of identical phrases, words, clauses, and grammatical structures in a sentence or paragraph.
What you do is set up a pattern. Can be any sort of pattern.
For instance: Rabbits are known for their cute faces, wiggling noses, and fluffy tails. Rabbits are a common pet, ranking fourth after freshwater fish, cats and dogs. They provide companionship, therapy, meat, wool, fur and sports partnerships.
Why use Parallelism?
The reason you want to set up pattern is for several reasons:
- Lists and sequences. Keep the grammatical structures the same.
- Nouns joined by coordinating conjunctives
- Phrases joined by correlative conjunctions (either/or; neither/nor; both/and; etc)
- Chronological events
- To remove needless repetition
- Clarity
The advantage in using parallelism (use of identical grammatical structures for related words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence or a paragraph.) is that is makes your writing more forceful, interesting and clear.
Not only that it helps to link ideas that are related, and to emphasize any relationships between them. Once you have that pattern put into place, your reader doesn’t have to work as hard to understand your thoughts and meaning.
I turned to the world wide web in order to gain more understanding, and one website I was at said that a sentence like this : Adam enjoys jumping, skipping and dancing. That sentence is using parallelism, whereas if I said “Adam likes to jump, to skip, and loves dancing.” then that is a faulty parallelism. What I know is the first sentence reads better than the second, that very fact, that you can read it better, makes it a better sentence.
You can add a twist
Then you can add a twist, for clarity, shock, or emphasis.
So I tried another:
I found a car, a lovely car
I thought it would go fast
I found a car, a lovely car
It should be such a blast
I found a car, a lovely car
and then it fell apart.
Use structures where you can, and then… add a twist. This twist that you add gives emphasis and makes what you say more memorable. (This honestly is where I got lost).
Some examples
One of the examples give was how Superman doesn’t stand for truth, justice and patriotism, but rather for truth, justice and the American way. I DO NOT see the parallelism. I do see how the second sounds better than the first
Another example used was Martin Luther King Jr. did his let freedom ring speech, this one section:
And I say to you today my friends, let freedom ring. From the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring. From the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring. From the mighty Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only there; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
He repeatedly used “let freedom ring”. Then the last three lines he switched it up, moving from general regions to specifics. There he pointed out specific locations of racial injustice, thereby bringing clarity. I kinda get it with this example which is why I showed it to you. 🙂 The other examples….. well .. go read the book! 🙂
But seriously here. It makes sense doesn’t it? To use parallelism. It will save you words and time and it reads better. Aaron likes to hunt, fish and swim. That sentence reads much better than Aaron likes to hunt. Aaron likes to fish and also swim. Or to read Aaron likes hunting and fishing but dislikes swimming. Parallelism is just another way of using your words in a way that helps your readers better understand and be impacted by what you have to say. It’s worth learning don’t you think?
