Adding parallels to your own writing will require some practice. The first step is to watch for parallels when you are reading and become good at identifying them in the writing of other authors. The second step is to look for places where a passage could be revised for parallel structure when you are revising your own writing.

In this activity, you will find passages that have parts ripe for parallelism. In fact, these passages started out with parallel structures and have been rewritten to hide those structures just so you can have the fun of trying to find them.

We hid them, of course, not just for fun, but so you can sharpen your “parallel-possibility awareness.” If you can see where parallel constructions could be (and were) used in these passages, you will be able to see where possibilities for parallels exist in your writing.

Each passage below contains two or more bracketed sections. One of the sections in each passage originally contained a parallel construction but has been changed to hide this construction. Read each passage and click on the bracketed section that you think contained parallel construction in its original form. Remember, you are looking for parts of the passage that are made up of two balanced elements. If you choose correctly, the original passage and an explanation will appear.