THE RULE OF PARALLELISM
When you are making a list, put the items in the same patterns of parts of speech. Whichever pattern you begin with, carry on with it with the other items.
WHY?
Some sentences are “awkward”; they just sound a bit wrong, and make the reader/listener stumble a bit. A “smooth” sentence is easy to follow, and the cadence or rhythm will be pleasant to hear. Can you or another person read your composition easily out loud?
When people listen or read, they naturally try to anticipate where you are going; they “think ahead”. They are trying to figure out if what you are saying fits with what they already know about and understand, especially if they have some background knowledge of the subject.
If you follow the Rule of Parallelism, your sentence (and your paragraph) will be easier to anticipate, easier to understand, easier to say and read, and it will be more beautiful to hear and more likely to persuade the reader to believe.
A SHORT LIST
She didn’t want to forget the essentials; so she made a list: shampoo, Tylenol, toilet paper, eggs, and milk.
Fire requires three elements to succeed: air, fuel and heat. Start building your fire loosely with small dry tinder such as paper, little slivers of wood, tiny sticks or pinecones; then add slightly larger faggots or splits of wood; and finally put on top of the pile the larger splits of wood or even whole logs if your fireplace is big enough. Touch a flame from a match or lighter to the tinder at the bottom of the pile of fuel. In a dry forest, wind will help to direct the spread of a fire that starts in the dry duff of the forest floor and underbrush, or from a fire in a tree that has been struck by lightning.
(Note that I set up a pattern and order in the first sentence and followed it explicitly in the final sentence: air, fuel and heat.)
Gathering Faggots
A LONG LIST
Long lists may be found in instructions, in tables of contents, in outlines, and in your résumé wherein you list your experience and skills. Whenever possible stick with the pattern you set up in the first item: for nouns, stay with nouns and noun substitutes; for verbs, stick with the tense and/or pattern that you start with.
