Mastering “Parallelism” for SAT Success

Comparisons must do more than just exhibit parallel structure. They must be grammatically similar and logically similar as well.

              WRONG: To visualize success is not the same as achieving it.

              RIGHT: To visualize success is not the same as to achieve it.

              RIGHT: Visualizing success is not the same as achieving it.

              WRONG: The rules of chess are more complex than checkers.

              RIGHT: The rules of chess are more complex than those of checkers.

              RIGHT: Chess is more complex than checkers.

The words in the dotted blanks must be in the same grammatical form and logically similar or the sentence will not be parallel:

neither … nor …

either … or …

both … and …

the better … the better …

the more (the less) … the more (the less) …

not only … but also …

** These constructions are only correct when written in these forms.