Readers expect items in a series to appear in parallel grammatical form. When one or more of the items violate readers’ expectations, a sentence will be needlessly awkward.

The revision presents all the items in the series as nouns: confidence, discipline, and creativity.

The revision uses -ing forms for all the items in the series: focusing, capturing, and using.

The revision adds a verb to make the three items parallel: drove, ran, and ignored.

In headings and lists, aim for as much parallelism as the content allows.

Headings

Headings on the same level of organization should be written in parallel form—as single words, phrases, or clauses. The following examples show parallel headings from an environmental report and a nursing manual, respectively.

phrases as headings

Safeguarding Earth’s atmosphere

Charting the path to sustainable energy

Conserving global forests

independent clauses as headings

Ask the patient to describe current symptoms.

Take a detailed medical history.

Record the patient’s vital signs.

Lists

Lists are usually introduced with an independent clause followed by a colon. Lists are most readable when they are presented in parallel grammatical form. Like headings, lists might consist of words, phrases, or clauses. The following list consists of parallel noun phrases.