Common Writing Mistakes Lesson 21

8/9/2019 Common Writing Mistakes Lesson 21

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Ive decided to take a trip across the

United States on a pogo stick. Write a

paragraph telling me why or why not I should

pursue this endeavor.


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Review Chapter 38 Little, Brown; do

exercises 38.1 and 38.4 on page 520 and 523


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1. The quarter horse skipped, pranced, and

absolutely sashayed onto the track.

2. Three subjects guaranteed to cause a fightare politics, religion, and money.

3. The car rolled down the hill, over the lawn,

and into the swimming pool.

What do they have in common?


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All items in a series should be in parallel form

It makes the series both graceful and easy to

follow.Contrast:

The duties of the job included baby-sitting, house-

cleaning, and the preparation of meals.

The duties of the job included baby-sitting, house-

cleaning, andpreparing meals.


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Not Parallel:The coach told the players that they should get a lot

of sleep, that they should not eat too much, and to

do some warm-up exercises before the game.

Parallel:The coach told the players that they should get a lot

of sleep, that they should not eat too much, and that

they should do some warm-up exercises before the

game. or Parallel:

The coach told the players that they should get a lot

of sleep, not eat too much, and do some warm-up

exercises before the game.


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Not Parallel:

The dictionary can be used for these purposes: to

find word meanings, pronunciations, correct

spellings, and looking up irregular verbs.

Parallel:

The dictionary can be used for these purposes: to

find word meanings, pronunciations, correct

spellings, and irregular verbs.


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Children on board; parents on Valium

Save the trees - ax the loggers

"I'm in no hurry; I'm on my way to work.

"I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing.

"I just got a new car for my wife today. Best trade I

ever made.

"Back off! I'm not that kind of car.

"I may be slow but I'm ahead of you!

"I'm not deaf... I'm just ignoring you."


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The pairing of two ideas is an effective use of

parallelism:

You can fool all the people some of the time, and

some of the people all the time, but you cannotfool all the people all the time.Abraham Lincoln

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask

what you can do for your country. John F.

Kennedy

We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied

until justice rolls down like waters and

righteousness like a mighty stream. Rev.

Martin Luther King, Jr.


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Parallel Structures help a writer emphasize

the most important ideas in a sentence.

I would like to promise herthat she will

grow up with a sense of her cousins and of rivers

and of her great-grandmothers teacups, would

like to pledge her a picnic on a river with fried

chicken and her hair uncombed, would like to giveher home for her birthday, but we live differently

now and I can promise her nothing like that.

Joan Didion On Going Home


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Parallel Structures help a writer emphasize

the most important ideas in a sentence.

I would like to promise herthat she will

grow up with a sense of her cousins and of rivers

and of her great-grandmothers teacups, would

like to pledge her a picnic on a river with fried

chicken and her hair uncombed, would like to giveher home for her birthday, but we live differently

now and I can promise her nothing like that.

Joan Didion On Going Home


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Most police work is concerned with scared

people who have been bitten by dogs, frantic

people whose children have run away from

home, old people who have no one to talk to,

and impatient people whose first response to

any situation is to call the cops.


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E.B. White paragraph handout


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The long and the short of it.


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He went to the store. He bought

some bread. He purchased some bologna.

He talked to the clerk. He bought some gum.

He checked out at the front. He drove his car

home.

Whats wrong with this paragraph?


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The fire of, I think, five machine-guns was

pouring upon us, and there was a series of

heavy crashes caused by the Fascists flinging

bombs over their own parapet in the most

idiotic manner. It was intensely dark.

George Orwell

Homage to Catalonia


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Common Writing Mistakes Lesson 21