CHAPTER 9 Style and Clarity^207
Changing the clause, and it’s more fl exible, to a one-word adjective, fl e x i b l e, restores
parallel form to this sentence.
Find the errors in the following sentences:
- The website said that the program taught tennis, swimming, and how to row
a canoe. - This week the family will wash the windows, rake the leaves, and they’ll
take the time to clean the garage. - Today I have a parent-teacher conference, a planning meeting at work, and I
will cook dinner for company. - Ellen thought the movie was boring, childish, and was too long.
- I kneaded the dough, prepared the wet ingredients, and then I remembered
to turn on the oven.
Your answers should have included these words (or similar parallel choices):
- and rowing
- and clean the garage
- and a dinner to cook for company
- and too long
5. remembered to turn on the oven
To sum up, when you list ideas, items, or actions, the list elements must be all
nouns, all infi nitives, all prepositional phrases, all gerunds, or all clauses.
Using Prepositions Correctly in a Series
Finally, prepositions also need to introduce words in a series cor rectly. W hen prepo-
sitions are used incorrectly, a lack of parallelism results. For example: