1
Not parallel: The role requires planning campaigns, to analyze results, and client communication. Parallel: The role requires planning campaigns, analyzing results, and communicating with clients.
10 Parallel Structure Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Parallel wording lets readers recognize equal relationships immediately; nouns should align with nouns, verb forms with comparable verb forms, and repeated clause patterns should stay structurally consistent.
- Identify elements presented as equal or paired.
- Choose one grammatical pattern for those elements.
- Repeat the pattern without forcing identical wording.
- Check correlative pairs such as both/and and not only/but also.
2
Not parallel: She likes hiking, to cook, and painting. Parallel: She likes hiking, cooking, and painting.
3
Parallel: The new process is faster to learn, easier to audit, and cheaper to maintain.
4
Parallel: We will review the evidence, identify the risk, and recommend the next step.
5
Parallel: The policy applies both to contractors and to full-time employees.
6
Not parallel: The tool can organize notes, generate outlines, and revision support. Parallel: The tool can organize notes, generate outlines, and support revision.
7
Parallel: His goal was not only to finish the race but also to understand why the first attempt failed.
8
Parallel: The workshop asks participants to observe carefully, describe precisely, and revise deliberately.
9
'The role requires planning campaigns, analyzing results, and presenting recommendations' is parallel; mixing 'planning campaigns, analysis of results, and to present recommendations' is not.
10
The role requires planning campaigns, analyzing results, and communicating clearly.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.