Grammar Lecture

3
Parallelism
Wordiness
Modifiers

Parallelism
Parallelism means expression of
similar ideas in similar
grammatical structures. A writing
which observes parallelism is easy
to read and comprehend. All
elements in a sentence must
follow the same grammatical
forms: nouns, adjectives and
adverbs.

 Not Parallel
The school boards objectives are clear:
to hire the best teachers, to create
good environment, and preparing the
students for twenty-first century.
Parallel
The school boards objectives are clear:
to hire the best teachers, to create
good environment, and to prepare the
students for twenty-first century.

Lack of Parallelism in
Listing
The dictionary can be used to find:
to look up meanings
pronunciation
correct spellings
looking for irregular verbs

The dictionary can be used to find:

meanings
pronunciations
spellings
irregular verbs

Parallelism in Correlatives
For this job you need both Urdu and
French.
Either he could not come or he did not
want to.
Their house is neither big nor small.
Success demands not only hard work
but also luck.

Wordiness
Wordiness means using more words
than are needed to convey a message.
It is considered as the biggest obstacle
to clear writing. Conciseness is achieved
when you say some thing in the fewest
possible words. A wordy expression can
be made concise by:
a) Removing Cluttering phrases
b) Removing surplus words
c) Removing unnecessary repetition of
words

Removing Cluttering
Phrases
These phrases can be replaced by short words without the loss of meaning.
Cluttering Phrases Shorter Substitutes
At the present timeNow
For the purpose of For
For the reason that Because, Since
In the meantime Meanwhile
In the near future Soon
In very few cases Seldom
In spite of the fact that Although
In accordance with According to
Course of action
Plan, Strategy
Take in to consideration Consider
Current status Status
Consensus of opinions Consensus
Predict ahead of time Predict
For the purpose of To
Communicate in writing Write
As a matter of fact In fact
Basic necessity Necessity
Common similarities Similarities
Last but not least Finally

Removing Surplus Words

To write economically, eliminate all
the meaningless words.
There are four rules that should
be observed.
Four rules should be observed.
In the period between April and
June, we detected the problem.
Between April and June, we
detected the problem.

Removing Unnecessary
Repetition
We must assemble together at
10:30 A.M in the morning.
We must assemble at 10:30 A.M.

Modifiers
A modifier is a word or a group of
words that describes or limits
another word or a group of words.
For example:
The soldier died.
The courageous soldier died.
The courageous soldier died bravely.
The courageous soldier died bravely in a
war.

Placement of Modifiers
Only he told me about the news.

He told only me about the news.

He told me only about the news.
He told me about the only news.

Misplacement of Modifiers
A modifier placed so awkwardly as to
create ambiguity or
misunderstanding.
Faulty: They were delighted to see a
field of daffodils climbing up the hill.
Revised: Climbing up the hill, they
were delighted to see a field of
daffodils.

 Faulty: Like many jackals, he

believes that the dogs also
previously lived in packs.
Revised: He believes that dogs
also, like many jackals,
previously lived in packs.

Thank You!