Exploring the parallelism concept serves as the cornerstone of literature and grammar. It is supportive in enhancing clarity, balance, and rhythm in grammar and brings out the persuasiveness of the language.

As a rhetorical tool and stylistic device, it contains the power of repetition. The grammatical and literary techniques using parallelism mainly have similar structures in terms of clauses, phrases, and sentences, with the intention of creating the desired sense of balance and enhancing symmetry. A good parallelism structure in practice, provides an impactful message to the target audience.

In exploring the concept of parallelism, we will journey through its significance, how it is applied in different literary works, and why mastering parallelism can help you improve your grammar and writing skills.

What is Parallelism?

Parallelism is defined differently in writing and literature. In both literature and grammar, it is mainly associated with the repetition of grammatical patterns, ideas, and structures to achieve the rhetorical aspect of the literature.

It can be traced back from the ancient days in traditional literature. In the ancient days, it was commonly used in oratory and poetry to encourage and emphasize on a given point while stressing the rhythm and coherence of the given text.

With time, parallelism has evolved and significantly transformed how it is defined and applied in different genres.  It has served as an effective tool that bridges the existing gap between meaning and form to help the writers craft message with significance.

In literature, parallelism, in simple words, can be understood as a concept or an idea sticking in someone’s head, and it becomes repeated over and over like a song. This song can stick in a person’s head for a long time. The contributing reason for the concept sticking in people’s heads is that it is repetitive of particular phrases, lines, and words, thus making it memorable.

In writing, parallelism is portrayed when the words and phrases are repeated and agree with the particular meaning and grammar. Writing it in the paragraph creates a rhythm that enhances the sense of balance and emphasis. This makes the paragraph more engaging with the audience and a persuasive and supportive grammatical device.

Parallelism ensures the connected ideas are well presented under the same grammatical constructions free from grammatical errors. This is a significant approach that helps reinforce ideas and points and encourages the effective readability of the text.

What is the Importance of Parallelism?

Parallelism is diverse; it is not just limited to literature; instead, it is a significant tool that is effectively used in grammar and literature. When writing, parallelism is mainly featured in a list form, which shows comparisons and is also used in compound sentences.

It makes writing more engaging, interactive, and persuasive. When you write a novel, speech, or email, using parallel structures makes your writing attractive and emphasizing. It helps create easier sentences with good flow and is pleasant for the eyes of the reader.

It is effective when you want to emphasize a certain point in your writing and make the complex concepts and ideas clearer and more understandable. The proper use of parallelism ensures a proper flow of writing.

What are the Tips for Mastering Parallelism?

• Have consistency

In engaging with the parallelism elements, ensure they are in a series or list and they have the same grammatical form. This will make it more impressive and attractive to interact with.

• Avoid mixing tenses

It is important to ensure that what you write in parallelism structure has uniform tenses in the entire sentence. It makes the reading flow and avoids mixing unnecessary words.

• Use it to compare ideas

When you want to compare ideas in a text, parallelism structure will make it clearer and maintain the balance.

• Read aloud

Reading your sentences aloud is critical and helps you identify the missing parallelism in a paragraph or entire text. It helps you realize the existing imbalance and work on it. The presence of imbalance mainly leads to disruption of the rhythm, which impacts the speech.

• Use the coordinating conjunction

This is essential in ensuring you effectively connect with the parallelism elements; this entails words like “but,” “or,” “nor,” “yet,” and “for.”

What are the Types of Parallelism?

Parallelism is of different types and can be used in different ways; however, it must follow a predetermined structure.

The following are the types of parallelism commonly used, and they must follow a pattern.

• Anaphora

This parallelism uses repetition of the same words or phrases at the beginning of each sentence. It is commonly used when engaging with grand speeches and soliloquies.

The iconic figures have made proper use of anaphora in their speech. A good example is the speech “I Have a Dream” written by King Luther. He repeated this phrase repeatedly to emphasize it in his entire speech.

• Asyndeton

In this, parallelism is expressed through the conjunction between the repeating phrases, which are eliminated. This is done to make the sentence shorter, easier, or faster to read.

The elimination of the conjunction is done purposely to bring out the flow of the sentence. An example in the sentence is “Eat, Pray, Love.” In real life, grammatically speaking, it should be written: “Eat, pray, and love.” The conjunction “and” is eliminated purposely, and the phrase has been made shorter and faster.

• Antithesis

This is commonly written when the two ideas show a clear contrast. The pairing of the antithesis with parallelism makes the desired repeating pattern. It ensures that only repeated patterns contrast each other.

The commonly heard antithesis is “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” These were the words Neil Armstrong spoke when he stepped to the moon’s surface. This sentence has remained relevant in people’s minds because of the proper combination of parallelism and antithesis.

• Epistrophe

It works similarly to anaphora, but in this type, the repeated words are at the end of the sentence of a phrase. The commonly used icon in their speech was the American President Abraham Lincoln in his speech. When he said, “and the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

This is a deeper sentence that has remained a phrase in people’s mouths and used by many on political grounds to pass their ideas.

What are the Common Parallelism Structures in a Grammar?

Parallelism is used in various ways to make the entire reading flow as desired. It can be used in the following areas.

• In lists

In the list, it is effective when showing correct and incorrect sentences. It uses the same grammatical form for each item in the list.

An example in the correct sentence, such as “Mary enjoys reading, jogging, and cooking.” The incorrect sentence is “Mary enjoys reading, jogging, and cooking.”

The incorrect sentence destroys the rhythm of the sentence because it lacks proper grammatical form.

• In comparison

The parallel structure is used in comparison and ensures that the comparison in a sentence is clear and well-balanced.

An example of a correct sentence is, “Mark is smarter than his brother and works harder than him.” This sentence is grammatically written. The incorrect sentence is, “Mark is smarter than his brother and works harder.”

• Used in contrasting and in sentences with coordinating conjunction

The parallelism is effective when both activities are presented in the same form. This creates a good structure in the sentence and ensures the flow of the sentence.

An example in the sentence form is “Jane likes swimming and biking.” The sentence with a conjunction is in the same form. The incorrect sentence can be “Jane likes to swim and biking.” This sentence is poor grammatically.

Parallelism in Literature

In literature, parallelism is the primary aspect in creating the story’s flow and enhancing the narrative depth. It ensures clarity in the arguments based on the topic of the argument.

The parallelism in the literature is useful in the following ways

• It enhances the flow of the sentence and the rhythm

When writing a similar sentence structure, the author is expected to create a musical quality that is pleasant and memorable in the ears.

In analyzing poetry, it has a rich parallelism structure, and each line echoes with a balanced symmetry. When applied in the speech, it makes the speech persuasive and rhetorical. The argument is powerful when the parallelism aspects are featured in the narrative.

• It is useful in emphasizing the key points

The parallel constructed sentence can have important ideas and draw the reader’s attention to the important content in the sentence, paragraph, or text.

Parallelism serves as a significant tool for embedding the significant theme of the narrative to meet the target audience’s interest and capture their attention.

• It creates memorable phrases

The repetition in parallelism makes the entire content have value to the target readers. It makes the content more coherent and impactful. One of the remembered phrases is Patrick Henry, who says, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Parallelism in Grammar

Parallelism in grammar is observed in various forms, such as clauses and phrases, and is also applied in some parts of a sentence. The proper use of parallelism in the sentence ensures clear sentence comprehension and readability to the interested audience.

Understanding the difference in parallelism is useful for the speaker to speak fluently with grammatically correct sentences, which are also rhetorically effective.

The parallelism in the grammar is useful in the following ways.

• Enhances clarity

The parallel sentences constructed make it easier to read and understand the message in the sentence. The grammar is clear and simple for the target audience to read.

• It ensures consistency

The proper usage of parallelism enhances consistency in terms of tone and style. It ensures there is flow in the entire writing. It ensures the word repetition has the right sentence structures and for good emphasis.

• It enhances correctness

When parallelism is used well, it helps the writer avoid making grammatical errors that can affect the entire flow of the sentence.

Conclusion

Parallelism is a versatile, powerful tool used in literature and grammar to improve clarity and rhythm and thus positively impact your writing. The proper usage of parallelism transforms your writing and makes the content memorable to the target audience. A proper understanding of parallelism and how to use it improves your writing and ensures you share compelling and clear ideas with the target group. It helps create engaging and persuasive writing.