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This parallel structure is from an article I wrote
promoting portfolio development. The parallel structure below is from the
final paragraph, a paragraph that I worked over and over until I got the
parallel structure "right."
| I believe that both teachers and students
who embark on a program of portfolio development within their composition
classes will learn a lot. First, by comparing the first and last in-class
essays, both students and teachers will see measurable progress, and they
will learn that writing classes count. Second, by examining the character of
successive essays throughout the semester, both students and teachers will
see heightening degrees of student ownership, and they will learn that
students have something to say. Finally, by examining the final, in-class
essays, both students and teachers will see a development among students for
self analysis, and they will learn that students have developed the critical
capacity to learn and to think. These are compelling reasons to use
portfolio development within the English composition classroom. |
The same paragraph below shows the parallel structure:
|
I believe that both teachers and students who
embark on a program of portfolio development within their composition classes
will learn a lot.
First,
by comparing the first and last
in-class essays,
both students and
teachers will see measurable progress,
and they will learn that
writing classes count.
Second,
by examining the character of
successive essays throughout the semester,
both students and teachers will see
heightening degrees of student ownership,
and they will learn that
students have something to say.
Finally,
by examining the final, in-class
essays,
both students and teachers will
see a development among students for self analysis,
and they will learn that
students have developed the critical capacity to learn and to think.
These are compelling reasons to use portfolio
development within the English composition classroom. |
First of all, this paragraph contains five sentences with the
objective stated in the first sentence: Students and teachers will learn a
lot. Then, the next three sentences end with what students and teachers
will learn.
1. Writing classes count.
2. Students have something to say.
3. Students have developed the critical capacity to learn and to think.
Finally, the paragraph ends with a statement telling the reader
what he/she has just read: Compelling reasons to use portfolio development
within the English composition classroom.
Another Short Example of Parallel Structure Modeled after
Maureen Dowd's
Brilliant Example
Not long after I read Maureen Dowd's example, I wanted to try my
"best" parallel structure in response to Luigi
Pirandello's short story, War, available HERE.
I
don't have any idea whether a person's physical and psychological
characteristics match in real life to the extent they do in literature, but
they match perfectly in the case of the fat man in the short story, War, by
Luigi Pirandello. The purpose of this paper is to examine those
characteristics.
From his physical description, the fat man is a mess. His body is fat; his
breath is short; his lip is trembling; his teeth are missing; his face is
red, contracted, and distorted; and his eyes are gray, watery, bloodshot and
bulging. In the end, the fat man spins out of control into sobs.
From his psychological description, the fat man was young once, and he
thought of "other things, like girls, cigarettes, illusions, new ties, and
Country." Now that he is no longer young, he has seen the "ugly sides of
life, the boredom, the pettiness, the bitterness, the disillusion." This man
is so out of control, he fakes the reality of his own son's death, all in
the name of Country.
And what about the son's death in the name of Country? It was a happy death,
a death without regret, the death of a hero, the death of a decent
boy.
Probably, although we don't know for sure, the fat man is and will remain a
decent man, a herd man. |
Writing parallel structure is fun, and not only that, writing
parallel structure always makes a good impression on your reader.
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