Understanding Parallelism

Primary focuses of this assignment:

• Verb tense agreement

• Pronoun agreement

Please open as a slide show.

Parallelism is used to ensure that verb and pronoun agreement are consistent throughout the sentence, paragraph, or paper.

Verb Tense Agreement

One part of parallelism is consistency with verb tense agreement. There are three major types of verb tense:

Past tense: The action happened already and is over. “I sat.”

Present tense: The action is happening now. “I sit.”

Future tense: The action will be happening. “I will sit.”

Verb Tense Agreement Cont’d In this section of the assignment you will work on understanding and

differentiating verb tense agreement in sentences.

Mouse over the verbs in the sentence if the tense does not match. You will hear a sound for the incorrect ones and no sound for the correct ones. For example:- During the movie, Sam stood up and drops his popcorn.

Stood is in past tense but drops is in present tense.

Let’s take a look at a few more examples.

The correct sentence would be either:• During the movie, Sam stood up and dropped his

popcorn.• During the movie, Sam stands up and drops his

popcorn.

Instructions: Determine if the sentences below are correct. Click on the verbs to see if they are correct. If they are inconsistent you will hear a sound. If they are consistent you will not. If the tense is wrong what verb form would be right

As Jane runs, she wondered about what Roy would be doing before work.

Runs is present tense while wondered is past tense.

Roy worked at the shoe factory and will be making little plastic tubes that went on the shoe laces.

Worked and went are both past tense while will be making is future.

Jane won’t go out with little plastic tube makers, even though she has a collection of aged shoe laces that have frayed ends.

Won’t, has, and have are all in present tense. This sentence is correct.

Pronoun Agreement

The second part of parallelism is pronoun consistency. There are three main groups of pronouns:

First person: The speaker or writer (I, me, we, us)

Second person: The listener or reader (You)

Third person: Everyone else (he, she, it, they)

These are basic breakdowns of pronouns. There are more that are not listed.

Pronoun Agreement Cont’d In this section of the assignment you will work on understanding and

pronoun agreement in sentences.

Click on the pronouns in the sentence if they do not match. You will hear a sound for the incorrect ones and no sound for the correct ones. For example:

During our movie, us laughed the whole time.

Our and us do not agree in this sentence.

The correct sentence would be:• During our movie, we laughed the whole time.

Let’s take a look at a few more examples.

Instructions: Determine if the sentences below are correct. Click on the pronouns to see if they are correct. If they are inconsistent you will hear a sound. If they are consistent you will not. If they are wrong, what form would be right?

As you ran our wondered about what we would be doing before the weekend.You, our, and we are not consistent in this sentence. Write down an appropriate pronoun consistency.

• They must admit, the changes he is seeing in mom are suspect.

Though they and he in this sentence seem like they are consistent, they are not.