COMPUTER SYSTEMS RESEARCH
Elements of Technical Writing
2005-2006

  • Keep ideas and sentence structure parallel
    1. Parallel sentence structure exists when two or more sentence elements of equal importance
      are similarly expressed.
    2. In the sentence The tube runs into the chest cavity, across the lungs, and into the stomach,
      it is the similar construction of three prepositional phrases that makes for parallel construction.
    3. Often, writers violate parallelism by constructing part of the sentence in one way and switching to
      another construction later in the sentence. 
        Non-parallel: Please sign the proposal, date it, and it must be sent to me.

  Parallel: Please sign the proposal, date it, and send it to me.
      It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.