How to spot and fix faulty parallelism in your writing

Below is a transcript of the video.

Are your readers judging you for faulty parallelism in your writing? 

Here’s an example:

‘Growing the business will require us to collaborate, to act quickly and greater diversity'. 

Here, there’s three requirements for growth - but they’re not parallel. 

There’s two verbs - or doing words - 'to collaborate' and 'to act quickly'.

And then a completely different type of word - a noun or thing word: 'diversity'.

The effect is clunky.

So how to fix?

One way is to make them all verbs.

For example:

“Growing the business will require us to collaborate, to act quickly and to become more diverse'.

Or do the opposite and make them all nouns:

'Growing the business will require collaboration, quick action and greater diversity'. 

Either solution sounds better to the ear.

So look out for faulty parallelism in your writing. 

For more writing advice, enrol in my online course, Writing With Confidence, available at the Doris and Bertie Writing School.

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