Parallelism

I didn't discover "parallelism" as a grammatical concept until high school. By then, I'd figured it out instinctively, although it certainly helped to be able to name the idea.

My students have never heard of it.

Rather than require them to read a chapter full of grammar-speak, redundant exercises, and narration designed to lull even the most attentive readers to sleep, I sprang parallelism on my Composition classes as an in-class activity.

After covering point-by-point and subject-by-subject organizational patterns for compare/contrast essays (using the thesis statement: Although Hershey's and Godiva chocolate are both well known and time-tested, they differ greatly in their price, availability, and varieties.), I handed out a piece of paper with sentences. The first page was pairs of sentences, the back side just sentences that had problems with parallelism.

I began by asking, "What does it mean to be parallel in geometry?"

Students: "Two lines that will never intersect." I responded by drawing the perfunctory "parallel" lines on the board with hash marks to represent their parallelism. (I resisted the urge to draw two elliptical lines and ask if they were parallel too...Euclid still reigns supreme in University geometry).

"What about parallelism in literature or movies?" Blank stares.

I gave examples of recent films that capitalize on "parallel" storylines, such as New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day, explaining that we consider two or more storylines that happen concurrently to be "parallel" until they cross over one another.

Student response, "Ooh, got it."

Me: "But in grammar, parallelism is about matching, patterns and balance." I pointed out that no one effectively learns grammar by reading its rules (duh), and explained that I would read pairs of sentences and I simply wanted them to tell me which of the pair sounded "better."

For example:
In English class, Tashonda learned to read poems critically and to appreciate good prose.
In English class, Tashonda learned to read poems critically and she appreciated good prose.

The class chose the first sentence (clever little darlings), which is correct. I then explained the concept of matching verb tenses (ie: consistency). We moved through 9 examples covering everything from adverbs, adjectives and lists to more verb tenses and direct and indirect pronouns.

As a side note, I teach my kids to simply "finish the sentence" to decide which pronoun is correct.

Example: She is taller than I/me.
If I complete the sentence, it reads either
1. She is taller than I am. or
2. She is taller than me am.

The correct option is clear, although it sounds funny because no one speaks in proper English grammar. As simple as this grammar lesson on parallelism seems, it's by far one of the most successful. My students rarely muff up parallelism after we go over it.

Just in case you haven't smiled today: