Parallelism

Parallelism is ensuring that various elements of a documebnt are similar in purpose and structure and is used to enhance readability by making content more predictable.

Parallelism in lists

List items should always be parallel. If the first item in the list starts with a verb, all items in the list should start with a verb. For example:

Her favorite things to do are

  • taking road trips,
  • going to the movies,
  • reading sci-fi novels, and
  • baking homemade cakes.

Parallellism in procedures

Steps should be written in parallel style.
  1. Open your document.
  2. Identify missing content.
  3. Fix the missing content.
  4. Save the document.

Parallelism in sentences

To create a parallel sentence, balance the parts of a sentence with their correlating parts. Often this may mean repeating prepopsitions or other introductory word within a clause of phrase.

Examples:

Table 1.
Parallel Not Parallel
Choose which components to install and which to save for later use. Choose which components to install and the ones to save for using later.
Other components may be added, such as a printer for printing documents or a scanner for scanning documents. Other components may be added, such as a printer for printing documents or scanner to use for scanning documents.