So, in this next module, we're going to talk about writing sentences that are in parallel structures.

So, we're using parallelism. And, I'll give you an example here tostart. I used this example from Strunk and White,again. I'm going to refer to them a lot, today. so here's an example of a sentence thatunparallel, not parallel. Locusts denuded fields in Utah, rural Iowawas washed away by torrents, and in Arizona the cotton wasshriveled by the placing heat. Notice that's unparallel because all thoseitems in the list are write, written in differentforms, different structures. So, we get locusts denuded, that'ssubject-verb, and then we get rural Iowa was washed away bytorrents, that's in the passive voice. And then, in Arizona, which is apreposition. So, you can see that we end up, these alldon't match. So, we want, when we're doing a list likethis, we want those things to match. So, to make this match, you want to be putting them probably all insubject-verb form. So, you could write in parallel form,locusts denuded fields in Utah, torrents washed away rural Iowa, andblazing heat shriveled Arizona's cotto n. So, we get subject-verb, locusts denuded,subject-verb, torrents washed away, and subject-verb,blazing heat shriveled. So that's now in parallel form. Here's an example of, you know, basicallywhen you, when you want to write in parallel form, you haveto make a choice of what those structure of those items inthe list are going to be and you gotta make a choiceand stick to it. So, here's a, an example of a sentencethat's nicely in parallel structure. I pulled this from a recent article I wasreading on the, the Mars rover, Curiosi

ty. So it says, NASA's intrepid Mars rover,Curiosity, has been thorugh a lot in the past year. It flew 354 million miles, blasted through the Mars atmosphere, deployed a supersonicparachute, unfurled a giant sky crane, and touched down gentlyon the surface of Mars. So, notice that in that second sentence,it's got a list of things, but they're allparallel. They all form the same structure. we've got subject-verb, subject-verb,subject-verb. It flew, blasted, it deployed, itunfurled, it touched down gently. And, I also, I like this example, I wantto point out to you the really nice verbs that are inthis sentence. It flew, it blasted, it deployed, itunfurled, it touched down gently. So, they're really nice verbs.Nicely done in parallel form. So, pairs of ideas, lists of things, andpairs of ideas that are joined by and, or, or but, need to bewritten in parallel form. So, here's an example. The velocity decreased by 50%, but thepressure decreased by only 10%. So, we've got subject-verb, subject first. So, those have to be written in the same form, subject-verb, but subject form likestructure, like that. And if you want to read more about this, I'll refer you, especially those of you in thebio-medical sciences, to a really good book onscientific writing by Mimi Zeiger called Essentials ofWriting Biomedical Papers. she gives some examples like this of, ofpairs of ideas joined by and, or, or but, that need to be inparallel form.

And, this is a really nice reference ifyou've got time to do some extra reading. It's quite a bit longer than Strunk and White, but has some really goodinformation and I'll be referring to some materially, material from her book throughout thiscourse. Here's another example of pairs of ideasjoined by and, or, or but, needing to be in parallelform. So, you would say, we aimed to increase the resolution and to improvepicture quality. So, notice we've got an and, here,connecting those two ideas and they're both aninfinitive phrase. So, we get an infinitive phrase andinfinitive phrase. So, you have to be careful, when you'vegot pairs of ideas like that, make sure thoseare in parallel form. And, of course, when you're writing lists,you want to make sure that those lists ofideas, or numbered lists of ideas even should be written, that those need to parallel form,as well. And, I'll just remind you, here, as wetalked about in the last module or two modules ago,that if you're writing a list of examples or a list ofideas, you're not exactly sure how many items to includein that list, default to the rule of threes. You'll see that a lot of these examples I'm going to show you have, indeed threeitems. So, here's an example of something that'sa list of items that is not in parallelform. If you want to be a good doctor, you muststudy hard, critically think about the medicaladventure, and you should be a good listener.

You could hear, that sounds funny when youread it out loud. You must, critically think, you should. Right, we need to make these in parallelform. You could say, you must study hard,critically think, and be a good listener, or something like that, butthey all need to match. So, we could change this to make itparallel to, if you want to be a good doctor, you must study hard, listen well, and think critically about themedical literature. I inverted the order a little bit therejust so there, since the think critically came with medicalliterature, we put a little more at the end. But, in the case we've got imperative,imperative, imperative. You must study hard, you must listen well,and you must think critically. So those are parallel. The other way to restructure this one sothat it's parallel would be to turn all of those items in the listto nouns. I don't think this is quite as good, butyou could say, and this would be parallel, ifyou want to be a good doctor you must be a goodstudent, a good listener, and a critical thinkerabout the medical literature. So, that would work to because they wouldthen all be nouns. Of course, I always prefer verbs.Here's another example of something that's not parallelin the list of items. Now, this is a list of items that'snumbered, but even when you've got numbered items, those haveto be parallel, as well. So, it says, This research follows four distinct phases, one, establishingmeasurement instruments, two, pattern measurements, three,developing interventions, and four, the dissemination of successfulinterventions.

So, notice we've got two that match andtwo others that match. We've got an establishing and developing,those match. And, the measurement and dissemination, those match. So, we want to make them all match, soprobably the way to do that would be to turn them allinto [UNKNOWN] and -ing words. So, you would say, this research followsfour distinct phrases, one, establishing measurement instruments, two, measuringpatterns, three, developing interventions, and four,dissemination successful interventions. So, pay attention to this especially whenyou're writing lists. This is something students often getwrong. you know you get kind of varied in listsand you lose your, you lose your place. So, you have to be really careful and goback and make sure everything is paralle l. So, I'm just going to do one practice example, here. If you'd like to test yourself, you mightpause the video at this point and see if you can get this one intoa, a parallel structure. if you have less time, I'll just lead you through it and there'll be some morepractice examples, later. So, this one reads, Bates describes fiveprinciples for the success of decision support systems in clinicalsettings, speed, real-time delivery, integrationinto workflow, simplicity and to avoid data entry. And, you can kind of hear the non-parallelstructure there when you read that when out loud, that to avoid dataentry is a sudden shift. You're going from noun, speed, deliveryand aggregation simplicity to suddenly an infinitivephrase, to avoid. So, this one's actually fairly simple tofix,

you just have to turn everything intonouns. So, we would fix that one by just saying, Bates describes five principlesfor the success of decision support systems inclinical settings, speed, real-time delivery,integration into workflow, simplicity, and the avoidance of dataentry. We do have to add some extra words thereto get that one into into parallel form but now it is correctand, and it reads in parallel form. The proceeding program is copyrighted bythe Board of Trustees of the Leyland Stanford Junior University.Please visit us at med.stanford.edu