All things being equal
July 3rd, 2008 at 06:09am Barry Wood
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.
Entry Filed under: parallelism
2 Comments Add your own
1. Leonardo duh Vinci | July 3rd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
All things are not equal when I use the words LAID and LAYED.
Can you explain or demonstrate a rule of thumb on the two?
2. Barry Wood | July 4th, 2008 at 1:07 am
I intend to write an entire book about “lay” and “lie,” so I don’t want to give away the ending here. Briefly, “lay” requires an object, something to be acted upon. You lay a book on a table. The book doesn’t do anything except lie on the table.
The two most common errors:
Something is “lying” around, not “laying.”
He “lay” down after lunch for a nap, not “laid.”
The verb forms are:
lie (present tense), lay (past tense) lain (past participle) lying (present participle)
For the “lie” that’s about not telling the truth, it’s lie, lied, lied, lying.
For lay, lay (present), laid (past and past participle), laying (present participle)
Whenever you hear someone say “laying,” it probably should be “lying.” And that’s the truth.
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