Skill 14 : Parallel Structure With Coordinate Conjunctions

The job of the coordinate conjunctions (and, but, or) is to join together equal expressions. In others words, what is on one side of theses words must be parallel to what is on the other side. These conjunctions can join nouns, or verbs or adjectives or phrases or clauses, they just must join together the same structures. Here are examples of equal structures correctly joined by coordinate conjunctions:

He discussed the problem with the nurse and the doctor.
The professor was knowledgeable but boring.
She hikes, jogs, or rides her bicycle whenever she can.
There are meetings in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening.
You can do the work  because you want to do it or because you have to do it.

In the first example, two nouns are joined by the coordinate conjunction and. In the second example, two adjectives are joined by  the coordinate conjunction but. In third example, there verbs are joined by the coordinate conjunction and. In the last example, two clauses are joined by the coordinate conjunction or.

The sentence that follow show the types of errors in parallel that are common on the TOEFL test.

He evening dress was beauty but expensive.
The student reach chapter, takes a lot of notes, and memories the material.

In first example, the coordinate conjunction but joins the noun beauty and the adjective expensive. The adjective beautiful in place of beauty. In the second example, the coordinate conjunction and joins the  verbs takes, and the plural noun memories, the verb memorizes is needed in place of memories.

The following chart outlines the use of parallel structure with coordinate conjunctions .

PARALLEL STRUCTURE WITH COORDINATE CONJUNCTIONS

(same structure)        and, but, or             (same structure)

(same structure)   (same structure)    and, but, or  (same structure)