Wrong: She not only wanted a hamburger but French fries. Many writers botch the use of correlative conjunctions, making mistakes like this: Here, “verb” does not equal “entire clause.” Here the not only joins just the verb ( reversed) while the but joins an entire independent clause ( it sent). The court not only reversed the lower court, but it sent a message to the police. If you wrote the following, you would produce a nonparallel construction: In the final example, when you use correlative conjunctions to join entire sentences, you’ll have to use an auxiliary verb with the first sentence ( did) and invert it, placing the subject between the auxiliary ( did) and the main verb ( reverse) ( not only did the court reverse. N ot only did the court reverse the lower court, but it sent a message to the police. He retraced his steps not only along the trail but throughout the camp.Ĥ. The reporter not only contacted her sources but also spent many hours in the library.ģ. Not only the CEO but the entire Board of Directors attended the press conference. Carefully line up the first structure after the words not only and then the second structure performing the same grammatical function immediately after the but or but also. The key lies in the placement of the words. Not only X but (also) Y X = Y (in grammatical function) X = Y (in grammatical form)
but (also) correlative conjunction, you should follow this model: To use them correctly, you must ensure that the structure joined by the first word of the pair is a grammatical mirror image of the structure joined by the second word of the pair. As shown above, these words come in pairsĮither. The rule of parallel construction creates a trap for unwary writers trying to use correlative conjunctions. Lucy waited for two hours but then decided to leave.Ĭorrelative Conjunctions and Parallel Structure Lincoln and Jefferson rank among our greatest presidents. John hit the ball over the pitcher’s head, between the legs of the short stop, but into the waiting glove of the outfielder.
#Parallel structure example movie#
He enjoyed the movie because his favorite actor starred and because the special effects required computer technology. The book that you enjoyed and that won the award has finally arrived at the store. John hit the ball, and he ran to first base. The list of possibilities could go on and on. Notice how I double or triple (1) entire sentences, (2) dependent that clauses, (3) adverbial clauses, (4) prepositional phrases, (5) subjects, (6) verbs, and (7) verbal objects. In the above discussion on coordinating conjunctions, I provided some examples of parallel structure. Each element performs the same grammatical function.
Each element appears in the same grammatical form.
#Parallel structure example series#
Though we’ll study parallel construction in the eBook Developing a Powerful Writing Style, I must introduce the concept here, for producing a parallel series requires the use of two of the conjunctions we just discussed: coordinating conjunctions and correlative conjunctions.īasically, to follow the rule, you must make certain each element in the series joined with a conjunction satisfies two conditions:ġ.
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