Question about grammer!

Contributor: Miss Anonymous Miss Anonymous
I'm teaching myself better grammer. I'm now a full time student, and spending any extra time writing reviews. It seems grammer is my ONLY weakness. So, my question is how do you spot Faulty parallelism? I'm reading a grammer book, and it was worded, but not explained.

Can someone explain it to me? Sorry if the question seems "childish" but I really don't know.
08/28/2011
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Contributor: Coralbell Coralbell
I'm not a grammar expert, but I'll try to explain it.

When you're joining phrases with conjunctions (word like 'and' or 'or') you need to make sure that they have similar grammatical structures.

You should look out for faulty parallelism when you're using a construction like:

a and b
a, b, and c
a or b
a, b, or c
not only a but also b

Here's an example of a faulty parallelism:

He liked to play basketball and riding horses.

It sounds a lot less awkward if you change it to one of the following:

He liked playing basketball and riding horses.

He liked to play basketball and to ride horses.


Hope that helped!

p.s. It's spelled grammar, not grammer
08/28/2011
Contributor: Miss Anonymous Miss Anonymous
Quote:
Originally posted by Coralbell
I'm not a grammar expert, but I'll try to explain it.

When you're joining phrases with conjunctions (word like 'and' or 'or') you need to make sure that they have similar grammatical structures.

You should ... more
I didn't even notice I spelled it wrong! hahahahaha

Yes! That helped so much! Thanks for taking the time to help me!
08/28/2011
Contributor: Elaira Elaira
The Purdue Owl website has tons of great resources for grammar and such.

link

I use it a lot. I found it has helped out my students, as well.
08/29/2011
Contributor: P'Gell P'Gell
There is a book entitled The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It is the quintessential book on grammar and writing. I recommend it.



Also, a slightly more modern book by Stephen King called On Writing is very good. It is more directed at the full length book or short story writer, but most of the advice still applies to all writing.
08/29/2011
Contributor: Jul!a Jul!a
We also did a grammar workshop that you can read through as well. There was a lot of great info covered in that.
08/29/2011