PRINCIPLES OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
WEEK 13 STYLE EXERCISES – USING PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION
SOME SUGGESTED ANSWERS

Exercise 1: Correct the lack of parallelism in the following sentences. The first one is done for you. The parallel parts are in bold.

1. You should begin by looking for errors and check for inconsistencies.

Revison: You should begin by looking for errors and checking for inconsistencies.

Explanation: The verbs need to be parallel here: ie expressed in the same form -- looking, checking

2. He was an excellent task manager but not excelling in people skills.

Revison: He was an excellent task manager but was did not have excellent people skills.

Explanation: The original uses the adjective excellent to describe the man but the second clause uses a verb excelling.

3. The receptionist is responsible for maintaining the petty cash, doing the banking and she must write the pay slips, too.

Revison: The receptionist is responsible for maintaining the petty cash, doing the banking and writing the pay slips.

Explanation: The verbs need to be parallel here throughout the sentence. This is like a list so each part must be expressed in the same way.

 

Exercise 1: Continued … these ones require that you make the list items parallel. The parallel parts are in bold.

14. The Prime Minister says his government has been responsible for the following improvements:

1. cutting down unemployment,
2. higher wages,
3. the conditions of work have been improved.

Revison: The Prime Minister says his government has been responsible for the following improvements:

1. reducing unemployment
2. raising wages
3. improving working conditions

Explanation: In the list, the verbs should all be in the same form, reducing, raising, improving. Where they were not expressed in the same form, the sentence fragment in the list needs to be revised.

15. The committee recommended the following procedures:

1. having invitations professionally printed
2. we should write to the local member of parliament
3. to leave only the main gate of the car park open.

15. The committee recommended the following procedures:

1. print invitations professionally
2. write to the local member of parliament
3. leave only the main gate of the car park open.

Explanation: As in 14, each of the listed proceedures should be expressed in the same way. You could make this list parallel in other ways too, but the point is that each part must be expressed similarly.