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Home » Archives » Fall 2007 (Volume 5 Issue 1) - Diversity in the Writing Center
The Merciless Grammarian Fall 2007 / Columns
The Merciless Grammarian spews his wrath on nasty problems of grammar, mechanics, and style.
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Drawing by Nathan Baran Most Merciless, Some of my sentences seem out of whack, but I can’t put my finger on what’s wrong. Do you see anything amiss in these sentences? I went to the grocery store, the pharmacy, and I visited my friend Barbara. I saw not only the biggest apple pie ever baked but also drank the best milk shake I've ever had. Respectfully, Augustine Bellicose Most Out of Whack, A common saw following the demise of a dictator is that at least under the old demagogue the streets were clean and the trains ran on time. Your sentences could use the ministrations of such a despot, as they are seriously unregulated. The problem? A lack of parallel structure. The dictum at the heart of this treasured feature of well-crafted prose is that similar things require similar grammatical forms. Linking two or more items with a connector like and or but requires that each item be structured similarly. Take your first sentence. The first two items work quite capably as nouns naming where you went: the grocery store, the pharmacy. That third item, though, is an entire clause, complete with its own subject and verb. Try to