All things being equal

2 comments July 3rd, 2008

One of the standards of good writing is maintaining what is called parallel construction. The idea basically boils down to keeping things logical and balanced.

A common area where a sentence can get out of whack is in a series of items. Here’s a typical example:

“Nearly 40.5 million people are expected on the roads, rails and skies this weekend.”

It’s a nice, concise way to cover three modes of transportation — too concise.

It’s OK until we get to flying. People are going to be on the roads and on the rails, but they won’t be on the skies. They will be “in” the skies.

Many readers will skip over this lapse in logic and understand what is meant, but writers shouldn’t take that for granted. An easy fix, although it doesn’t flow quite as well:

“Nearly 40.5 million people are expected on the roads and rails and in the skies this weekend.”

We lost a comma, added three words and preserved logic. It’s a good trade.