Conjoined items in a sentence must be in the same grammatical form, i.e. grammatically parallel.
- INCORRECT: I like to bike and running.
- CORRECT: I like biking and running.
Words, phrases, and clauses joined by and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet
- INCORRECT: I enjoy streaming movies and to sleep on weekends.
- CORRECT: I enjoy streaming movies and sleeping on weekends.
Words, phrases, and clauses joined by not only... but also, both... and, either... or, neither... nor
- INCORRECT: I love both to read books and watching movies.
- CORRECT: I love both to read books and to watch movies.
- CORRECT: I love both reading and watching movies.
Words, phrases, and clauses joined by as much as, more than, less than
- INCORRECT: I enjoy watching movies as much as I like to read books.
- CORRECT: I enjoy watching movies as much as I enjoy reading books.
Inserting because
- INCORRECT: Sandra schedules her day because she works a full time job, she wants more time with her family, and she needs to finish her assignments.
- CORRECT: Sandra schedules her day because she works a full time job, because she wants more time with her family, and because she needs to finish her assignments.
Words, phrases, and clauses in a series
- INCORRECT: She is smart, beautiful, and has a great sense of responsibility.
- CORRECT: She is smart, beautiful, and very responsible.
Items in a bulleted list
INCORRECT:
To write a Compare/Contrast paper:
- Defining your assignment
- Find, review, and evaluating sources
- Write your thesis statement and outline
- Writing a first draft
- Find additional sources, revise, and rewrite
- Submitting your paper
CORRECT:
To write a Compare/Contrast paper:
- Define your assignment
- Find, review, and evaluate sources
- Write your thesis statement and outline
- Write a first draft
- Find additional sources, revise, and rewrite
- Submit your paper
