1. Parallel Structures
Sentences or parts of a sentence are parallel when structures within them take the same form. Parallelism is important at the level of the word, phrase, and clause.

2. Parallel Words Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?
hurry and waste, both nouns, follow the preposition with
In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime.
true and sublime, both adjectives, modify something

3. Parallel Phrases
Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system begins the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man.
in the outskirts, behind the farthest star, before Adam, after the last man:
these are parallel prepositional phrases
More difficult because there is no zeitgeist to read, no template to follow, no mask to wear.
three parallel nouns are preceded by “no” and followed by an infinitive: no
zeitgeist to read, no template to follow, no mask to wear

4. Parallel Clauses Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.
Thoreau’s title consists of two parallel dependent clauses
We perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of the reality.
two parallel dependent clauses begin with that and function as an object

5. Parallel Clauses
If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.
two dependent-independent constructions are connected with a semicolon

6. Identify parallel structure in the following sentences:
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Was this act the work of a genius or a lunatic?
This situation is a problem not only for the students but also for the teachers.
Heather learned to work fast, ask few questions, and generally keep a low profile.
After you finish your homework and before you check your , please do your chores.

7. Lack of Parallelism
Consider what happens when supposedly equal parts of a sentence don’t follow the same grammatical form:
Why should we live with such hurry and to waste life?
Parallelism is tricky when elements are separated by modifiers or other elements:
It was sweet and sad, and though you’d rarely admit it, a necessity.

8. Lack of Parallelism
Not Parallel
In other words, Facebook activism succeeds by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but when people are motivated to do things even though they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.
In other words, Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.
Parallel

9. Fix the parallel structure in the following sentences:
My new exercise program and going on a strict diet will help me lose the weight I gained over the holidays.
As part of his accounting business, Rick has private clients, does some pro bono work, and corporations.
Try not to focus on the mistakes that you’ve made; what you’ve learned from them should be your focus instead.
A new job is likely to cause a person anxiety and working extra hours to make a good impression.
A competent physician will assess a patient’s physical symptoms, and mental attitude will also be considered.

10. Parallelism as a Rhetorical Strategy
Writers use parallelism to emphasize, contrast, or connect ideas.

11. Find and explain the effects of the parallel structures:
The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek - it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities , tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language - all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.

12. Specific Types of Parallelism
Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.
But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters;... when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” - then you will understand why we found it difficult to wait.

13. Specific Types of Parallelism
Antimetabole: Repetition of words in reverse order.
We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

14. Specific Types of Parallelism
Antithesis: Opposition, or contrast, of ideas or words in a parallel construction.
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

15. Specific Types of Parallelism
Zeugma: Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different, often incongruous, meanings.
Someone sent me a T-shirt not long ago that read, “Well-Behaved Women Don’t Make History.” They don’t make good lawyers either, or doctors or businesswomen.
You are free to execute your laws and your citizens as you see fit.

16. Choose a political speech to analyze.
You will focus on 3 minutes of the speech. Your job is to find each example of parallel structure, anaphora, antimetabole, antithesis, and zeugma in the speech. Explain the effects of these on your speech.
Answer the question: why do you think parallel structure is used so frequently in political speeches?
Then, write your own “political speech.” Feel free to make it comical - choice of subject is yours, but you must use each type of parallel structure once.