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Parallel Structure in Essays

The document discusses the concept of parallel structure, specifically in relation to items in a series. It provides an example of how sentences and reasons listed in a thesis statement should use parallel grammatical structures, like three nouns or three prepositional phrases. Not having parallel structure is called a faulty parallelism. The document encourages paying attention to sentence structure when drafting outlines and thesis statements to avoid repeating errors in essay drafts.

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Micky Morante
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267 views1 page

Parallel Structure in Essays

The document discusses the concept of parallel structure, specifically in relation to items in a series. It provides an example of how sentences and reasons listed in a thesis statement should use parallel grammatical structures, like three nouns or three prepositional phrases. Not having parallel structure is called a faulty parallelism. The document encourages paying attention to sentence structure when drafting outlines and thesis statements to avoid repeating errors in essay drafts.

Uploaded by

Micky Morante
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PARALLEL STRUCTURE & the EXAMPLE ESSAY

As we begin the next essay, I wanted to bring up a minor grammatical issue: PARALLEL STRUCTURE.
While I say “minor,” I don’t mean that it is unimportant; rather, we may not have spent much time on it in the
grammar module so I wanted to go over it here. I will note lapses in this on your papers.

We want our sentences - but especially our items in a series - to be parallel in structure, that is, to be of the
same grammatical structure. A poker metaphor best explains the idea behind it: think 3 of a kind. If you have
3 jacks, you’d win (or, at least beat 2 pair). However, if you have only 2 jacks and 1 ace, 1 seven, and 1 deuce,
you better fold because your hand is not parallel in structure.

When our items in a series (or sentences) are not parallel, we call this a faulty parallelism. We see this error
mostly in our Thesis Statements - in particular, the “support” part of our TS (remember: Topic + Main Idea +
Support). The “support” is often items in a series.

In our EX essay, the support will be a list of reasons, and these reasons need to be parallel in structure:
3 nouns, 3 prepositional phrases, 3 "because" clauses.

I mentioned this in the PPT.

For example (pun intended), if I were writing why I hate winter, my thesis could look like this:

However, the three most significant reasons I hate winter include the snow, the cold, and the snow.

Here, we have 3 nouns (one used twice because I hate the snow!)
OR I could phrase it as so:

I hate winter because of the snow, because of the cold, and because of the snow.

Here, we have 3 "because" clauses.

As you draft your Outline Template, and especially the Thesis in your OT, pay attention to your sentence
structure; errors made in the OT often find themselves repeated in the essay drafts.

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