Question

Which two sentences correctly use parallel structure? Bernie not only forgot his one-year anniversary with Rachel but also he missed his father's birthday. Stan is a voracious reader, an expressive writer, and a skillful painter. He aims to earn a little and spending less than he earns. Two distinct processes are involved: the construction of meaning and the organization of ideas.

Answer 1

Answer:

The two sentences that correctly use parallel structure are the following ones: "Bernie not only forgot his one-year anniversary with Rachel but also he missed his father's birthday" and "Stan is a voracious reader, an expressive writer, and a skillful painter".

Explanation:

Parallelism, also called parallel structure, is the repetition of a chosen grammatical structure within a sentence. When you use parallel structure, you add clarity to your writing. In the case of the sentences above, parallelism has been created by  means of the use of the cordinating and correlative conjunctions. With the correlative conjunction, the two clauses follow the same grammatical structure (a transitive verb in the past simple tense) and, with the cordinating conjunction, an adjective premodifies each of the coordinated NPs (voracious reader, expressive writer, skillful painter).

Answer 2

The first two are parallel: "Bernie not only forgot his one-year anniversary with Rachel but also he missed his father's birthday." His and the name of a person, as well as their special day, are mentioned in each of the underlined phrases. Although they do not sound the same and may not have the same number of words, the construction of meaning is the same and the number of syllables is roughly the same. In, "Stan is a voracious reader, an expressive writer, and a skillful painter." all the underlined things are exactly two words, a strong adjective, followed by a -er hobby/occupational word. This would be more so the organization of ideas, because each clause has a slightly different meaning due to the different connotations of the adjectives used.

Hope that clears it up for you so that you can do it yourself next time!