Don’t change

horses in midstream!

(It’s very awkward)

A short lesson on parallel construction.

Changing horses in mid-sentence looks like this:

playing Scrabble = gerund phrasereading zombie books = gerund phrase

Indian food = noun

I enjoy playing Scrabble, reading zombie books, and

Indian food.

See the problem?

I enjoy , , and .

Here’s the fix:

I enjoy playing Scrabble, reading zombie books, and eating Indian food.

I enjoy , , and .

playing Scrabble = gerund phrasereading zombie books = gerund

phraseeating Indian food = gerund phrase

What about this?

A.J. swung the bat and the ball was hit out of the park.

A.J. swung the bat = active voicethe ball was hit out of the park = passive

voice

How can you fix it?

Bingo!A.J. swung the bat and hit the ball

out of the park.

swung the bat = active voicehit the ball = active voice

Notice the tense of each verb!

homework = complete the parallel construction worksheet