Parallelism as a mark of good writing – 6

IN the first five parts of this series, we reviewed the various ways of achieving parallelism when constructing sentences. We saw how using the same function words can match and balance the clauses and phrases in a compound sentence, and how presenting our ideas in parallel not only emphasizes that they are equally important but also clarifies the point that we are making about them. This time, we will see how parallelism can be pursued beyond the sentence level to make our writing clearer and more forceful, and our language more elegant and pleasing to the ears.

Of course, we must not wrongly assume that we should aim for parallelism only for such elaborate pieces as expository writing or speeches. We need parallel structures even for such mundane requirements as tables of contents and résumé listings. In the sample table of contents below, for instance, note the meticulous parallelism in the consistent use of noun phrases for the headings in the first level, gerunds for the headings in the second, and simple nouns in the third.