Main content
SAT
Course: SAT > Unit 11
Lesson 3: Writing: Grammar- Writing: Setting Up Ideas — Video Lesson
- Setting up ideas | Quick guide
- Writing: Strong Support — Video lesson
- Strong support | Quick guide
- Writing: Relevant Information — Video lesson
- Relevant information | Quick guide
- Writing: Sequencing sentences — Video lesson
- Sequencing sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Words — Video lesson
- Transition words and phrases | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Sentences — Video Lesson
- Transition sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Introductions — Video lesson
- Writing: Conclusions — Video lesson
- Introductions and conclusions | Quick guide
- Writing: Interpreting Graphs and Data — Video lesson
- Interpreting graphs and data | Quick guide
- Writing: Precision — Video Lesson
- Precise word choice | Quick guide
- Writing: Concision — Video lesson
- Concision | Quick guide
- Writing: Formal and Informal Language — Video Lesson
- Writing: Formal vs. casual language — Example
- Formal vs. casual language | Quick guide
- Writing: Syntax — Example
- Writing: Sentence Fragments — Video Lesson
- Writing: Sentence Boundaries — Example 1
- Writing: Sentence boundaries — Example 2
- Sentence fragments | Quick guide
- Writing: Subordination and coordination — Example
- Writing: Combining Sentences — Video Lesson
- Linking clauses | Quick guide
- Writing: Parallel Structure — Video lesson
- Writing: Parallel structure — Example
- Parallel structure | Quick guide
- Writing: Modifier Placement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Modifier placement — Example
- Modifier placement | Quick guide
- Writing: Verb Tense and Mood — Video Lesson
- Writing: Shift in verb tense and mood — Example
- Verb tense and mood | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Clarity — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun clarity — Example
- Pronoun clarity | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun-antecedent agreement — Example
- Pronoun-antecedent agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 1
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 2
- Writing: It’s/Its Confusion — Video Lesson
- Confusion with "its" and "their" | Quick guide
- Writing: Subject-Verb Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Subject-verb agreement — Example
- Subject-verb agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Noun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Noun agreement — Basic example
- Noun agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Frequently Confused Words — Video Lesson
- Writing: Frequently confused words — Example
- Frequently confused words | Quick guide
- Writing: Conventional Expressions — Video Lesson
- Writing: Conventional expression — Example
- Conventional expressions | Quick guide
- Writing: Logical Comparison — Video Lesson
- Writing: Logical comparison — Example
- Logical comparison | Quick guide
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 1
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 2
- Writing: Commas — Video Lesson
- Commas | Quick guide
- Writing: Semicolons — Video Lesson
- Semicolons | Quick guide
- Writing: Colons — Video lesson
- Colons | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive Pronouns — Example
- Writing: Possessive Nouns — Video Lesson
- Making nouns possessive | Quick guide
- Writing: Items in a series — Example
- Writing: Punctuating Lists — Video Lesson
- Lists and punctuation | Quick guide
- Writing: Nonrestrictive and parenthetical elements — Example
- Writing: Nonessential Elements — Video Lesson
- Nonessential elements | Quick guide
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Writing: Parallel Structure — Video lesson
David works through a Parallel Structure question on the SAT Writing and Language test.
Created by David Rheinstrom.
Want to join the conversation?
- in, the first sentence is not wrong right? 1:48(3 votes)
- You're correct. The first sentence is not grammatically wrong, and usually no parallelism question on the SAT will be grammatically wrong. However, it is stylistically wrong, as the three items in the list are not in the same word form. Sal fixes this by changing "with speed" to "speedily".(6 votes)
- Would It be grammatically correct to use only "are" instead of "they are"?(2 votes)
- No, if you only used “are”, that last clause would lack a subject, making it grammatically incorrect. Remember that parallel structure is all about consistency. Since the list’s first two clauses have both a subject and a verb (“they are”), the last clause/ item in the list needs both words, too.(4 votes)
- Is it just me or the first sentence is correct now? I clearly remember that there was a video where the first sentence was underlined, and the answer was like B I think.(3 votes)
- Did the narrator mean "quickly" at? Maybe I'm wrong please let me know, I might be a little criticizing sometimes. 1:34(1 vote)
- Sir I think you are reading that too fast. Can you please read slowly.💗(0 votes)
- Do you mean that he's talking too quickly for you? If so, you can go to the settings at the bottom right of the video in order to change the video speed.
Make sure to take any questions or requests about the site to the Help Center or Support Community. The links for both are at the bottom of the page!(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] Let's take a
look at question four here. Electronic health records
provide many advantages over paper ones. They don't require physical storage space. They don't need to be
photocopied and collated, and they are less likely
to be physically misplaced. And our choices are A, no change. They are B, because they are. C being, and D Delete
the underlined portion. All right, so this sentence
introduces three advantages. The first one is they don't
require physical storage space. The second one is they don't need to be photocopied and collated, and the third one is they are less likely to be physically misplaced. This sounds pretty good as is, so I'm leaning towards the no
change option to begin with, but just to be sure, I'm
going to apply a grammar rule that I always use when
setting up lists of phrases, and that's parallel structure. Parallel structure is this idea that when two or more words,
phrases, or clauses are linked they should share the same structure. Verb form should match,
phrase structure should match, and modifiers like adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions phrases
should also match. So for example, this is not parallel. She ran her business briskly,
efficiently, and with speed. That's not parallel, but this is. She ran her business briskly,
efficiently, and speedily. I wanted to make them all match, so I changed with speed to speedily. I turned it into an adverb to
match briskly and efficiently. And that's parallel structure
in a nutshell, make a match. On test day, you'll see
one to two questions that require you to identify and avoid parallel structures in the underlined portions of sentences. Let's go over some top tips to handle parallel structure questions. So top tip, make them match. If you notice that a sentence is creating a set of two or more elements, try to make the structure
of each underlined element match the structure of the others. So if the structure goes,
noun, noun, adjective, and the adjective is underlined, change the adjective to a
noun to match the others. The next top tip, avoid
unnecessary repetition. One way parallel structure errors crop up is when sentence elements
come up twice unnecessarily. So if we look at "The
hobbits packed their bags with mushrooms, biscuits,
and with cheese," we can see how with
introduces the whole list, and it applies to all three items, mushrooms, biscuits, and cheese. And that means that the
with right before cheese is redundant and it can be removed. Leaving us with, The
hobbits pack their bags with mushrooms, biscuits, and cheese. Our final top tip is to
focus on what you can change. Parallel structure
questions will underline only part of a sentence. Your job is to match the
parts of the sentence you can change, the underlined part, to the parts of the
sentence you cannot change. That sounds simple enough, but it's easy to get lost in the weeds with questions like these. Preassembled meal kits
are cheaply, healthily, and convenient, especially
when compared to take out. And this one's a little tougher, right? Because the adverbs cheaply and healthily are parallel with each other, but they're underlined
and convenient is not. So we have to take our
cues from convenient, which is an adjective. And that means we have to change the underlying adverbs into adjectives to maintain parallel
structure with convenient, giving us, Preassembled meal
kits are cheap, healthy, and convenient, especially
when compared to take out. Okay, so let's take these top tips and apply them to our question. If you'd like, pause the video
here and try it on your own. All right, let's do it together. Electronic medical records don't require physical storage space. They don't need to be
photocopied and collated, and they are less likely
to be physically misplaced. Okay, so in the part of this
list that isn't underlined, I'm noticing a pattern. They don't do this. They don't do this. They are that. If there were a third they don't option, believe me, I'd jump on it,
but I don't see one choices. So what matches that pattern? They are, choice A, kind of matches it, let's leave it in. Choice B, because they are. This has the they verb construct, but introduces a because,
which breaks the pattern. Cross it off, simple as that. Choice C, being. Let's plug it back into the sentence. They don't need to be
photocopied and collated, and being less likely to
be physically misplaced. This breaks the pattern and
breaks the parallel structure. Nope, let's cross it off. Choice D, delete the underlined portion. All right, let's see what this does. They don't need to be
photocopied and collated and less likely to be
physically misplaced. This doesn't match that
they verb structure. So bye-bye D. And that leaves us with A, the one choice that maintains
a parallel structure with the other items on the list. Let's review the strategy. When you're looking at
structured elements in a list, first identify the parallel structure. What's happening in the sentence, and is it being interrupted? Next focus on the parts you can change. How can you make the underlined portion match the part of the sentence
that isn't underlined, and finally avoid unnecessary repetition. Eliminate extra words that would spoil the parallel structure, or result in grammar errors. Good luck out there, you've got this.