WTF series: what are parallelisms?
Image credit: Ash @ModernAfflatus
Imagine if you could make your writing sound really readable.
Imagine if you could do it by adding parallelisms.
Imagine if someone awesome were to explain how... 👀
What is a 'parallelism'?
Solid question, my friend. Parallelisms occur when you have matching structures or elements in your sentence. It may sound like an unnecessarily flouncy technique, but readers enjoy parallel structures, even if they don't know why.
Allow me to demonstrate through the majestic power of Blondie...
Although the majority of the lyrics in the song Call Me are created in parallel structures, let's grab a gander at the chorus:
Call me on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime
Call me my love
You can call me any day or night
Call me
Ms Harry has structured her lyrics just like the parallelogram from maths GCSE — the lines mirror one another but never touch. They each start with the 'call me' request and deviate from there.
So, each element in the sentence needs to be framed in the same way. Sounds simple, doesn't it?
Nah, mate. Keep reading.
How can parallelisms fuck you up?
At first glance, parallelisms seem to be the thing of lyrics and poetry, but that's only when you're repeating the same sentence format. You can make a sentence parallel by ensuring the words fit the same context.
Read the following sentence:
Sarah loudly and with style threw up the 10 beers she drank.
Something about it feels off, wouldn't you agree? Besides the puke, I mean. This is because we've mixed an adjective ('style') with an adverb ('loudly').
This sentence is as messed up as Sarah.
Here's how we can make that shit parallel:
Sarah loudly and stylishly threw up the 10 beers she drank.
Both these words are now adverbs, so they mirror each other in the sentence rather than being mismatched and corrupting the nice flow we've got going on.
Because I'm all about solutions, you can straight up correct the sentence by changing the order:
With style, Sarah loudly threw up the ten beers she drank.
This isn't parallel, but it sounds a damn sight better.
And there you have it! A short but effective crash course on parallelisms.
Want to bring parallelisms and other clever techniques into your copy? Pie off the learning bit and hire me to do it for you 😊
