Hello Reader

How have you been?

I'm back with another edition--and we're going to talk about why you should care about parallelism in your writing.

Look at these screenshots of bulleted lists and tell me what you see:

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As you read through these excerpts, do you sense some friction?

Are the items in the list flowing as they should?

In excerpt 1, notice the last item in the list. It's a complete sentence. All the other items in the list are phrases.

How would I change it?

Since the stem talks about stuff that teams can track and the last item talks about what leadership tracks, I would remove it from the list and mention it as a separate sentence after the list.

Teams can track their work through:

• Weekly status meetings that focus on immediate challenges
• Monthly strategic reviews with leadership
• Regular documentation of key decisions and business strategy changes

Leadership tracks the return on investment (ROI) throughout development.

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In excerpt 2, the fourth item on the list is a complete sentence, whereas the rest are phrases.

Here's how I would change it:

For example, a product plan might show the following:

• Technical requirements for each feature
• Number of developers needed each month
• Specific testing procedures
• Channel-wise marketing budget
• Daily and weekly development tasks

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Parallelism refers to maintaining the same grammatical form for all the elements in a list or series.

Three things to remember w.r.t. parallelism are:

1. Maintain consistent grammatical form for all elements.
2. Use coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) to connect parallel elements.
3. Keep parallel elements similar in length. (But this one's not a hard-and-fast rule.)

For example,

❌ Non-parallel version: He is learning to ride, skating, and sing.

✅ Parallel version: He is learning to ride, skate, and sing.

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❌ Non-parallel version: The company's goals are to increase revenue, expanding the customer base, and to improve employee satisfaction.

✅ Parallel version: The company's goals are to increase revenue, expand the customer base, and improve employee satisfaction.

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⁉️ Why should you care about maintaining a parallel structure in lists?

• Enhances readability
• Adds rhythm and balance
• Avoids confusing readers
• Makes (any) CTAs clear
• Highlights important takeaways

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See what I did here? 😃

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I understand that not everyone is a stickler for grammar, and neither am I an expert.

But I do care about making the reading experience as smooth and clear for my readers as possible. So, I urge you to pay attention to making your lists--not just bulleted ones--parallel in structure.

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Content marketing leaders like Erica Schneider, Ryan Law, and Aaron Orendorff mention parallelism in their courses, interviews, and social media posts. It must be important if they're talking about it, isn't it?

I'm leaving you with Alex Lindley's thoughts on parallelism:

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Experts' Corner

For this edition, we have Kritika Kulshreshta, writer, editor & content strategist for B2B brands/leaders in finance, SaaS, healthcare & cybersecurity/tech, giving us her thoughts about parallelism.

She's worked with $2B+ MNCs, thought leaders with 30K+ followers, delivered 14M+ impressions annually, and collaborated with 20+ brands and 240+ CXOs.

In her words:

Parallelism in writing is all about balance and consistency. The Cambridge Dictionary defines
it as “the use of matching sentence structure, phrases, or longer parts to balance ideas of
equal importance.”

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What parallelism does is make your writing clearer, more readable, and more polished. It’s
like rhythm in music—if the beat suddenly changes, it feels off. In writing, when sentence
elements don’t follow the same structure, they sound awkward.

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​Three Nuances of Parallelism You Should Know​
Parallelism isn’t just about sentence structure—it also shows up in lists, correlative
conjunctions, and comparisons. Here are some key nuances:

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1. Parallelism in Comparisons (Using "than" or "as")

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When comparing two things, the structure on both sides should match.
❌ Cybersecurity is more critical than ever and preventing attacks.
✔️ Cybersecurity is more critical than ever and more essential than preventing attacks.

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2. Parallelism with Correlative Conjunctions ("either...or," "neither...nor," "not only...
but also")

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Both parts of the sentence should follow the same structure.
❌ Fintech innovations are not only changing banking but also the way businesses manage
cash flow.
✔️ Fintech innovations are not only changing banking but also transforming the way
businesses manage cash flow.

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In this example, both parts match. "Changing banking" and "transforming the way" follow the
same structure and use the same verb form.

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3. Parallelism in a Bulleted List

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Parallelism is important here, too! It means each item in your list should follow the same
grammatical structure. This keeps your writing clear, professional, and easy to read.

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​💡 Pro Tip: Start each bullet point with the same part of speech and in the same tense. For
instance, if the first bullet starts with a noun, the second one should too. If you're using the “-
ing” form of a verb to start one point, keep it consistent throughout the list.

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Here are some examples:

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✅ Example of a Parallel List (Correct)

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A strong cybersecurity strategy includes:

• Identifying vulnerabilities
• Assessing risks
• Mitigating threats
• Training employees

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Each bullet starts with a verb in the same "-ing" form, making the list consistent.

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❌ Example of a Non-Parallel List (Incorrect)

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A strong cybersecurity strategy includes:
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• Identifying vulnerabilities
• Assessing risks
• How threats can be mitigated
• Employees should be trained

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The last two points break the pattern, making the list awkward and harder to read.

Here's an exercise for you:

Try to spot the non-parallel items in this except and reply to this email, telling me how you would fix it:

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Until next time, when I will talk about data-driven B2B storytelling.

All my best,

Satabdi