Question

Which of these sentences uses correct parallel structure?<br />
After school, Sheila either walks home or is taking a bus.<br />
Every evening, Jenny does her homework and then took her dog for a walk.<br />
On the airplane, Shane read a book, watched a movie, and was playing his favorite music.<br />
Before starting college, Jake learned how to speak Spanish and traveled across South

Answer 1

The answer is “On the airplane, Shane read a book, watched a movie, and was playing his favorite music. The "Airplane" sentence has correct spelling and punctuation. It has all the commas in the right place and capitalizes the correct letters.

Answer 2

Before starting college, Jake learned how to speak Spanish and traveled across South

Parallelism is using the same grammatical structure in a series of phrases or sentences. It is used to help with clarity and can provide emphasis. The only sentence with correct parallel structure is the last one, but even it is not complete. The first sentence is not parallel because the verbs "walks" and "is taking" are not in the same form. The sentence should read "...Sheila either walks home or takes a bus." The second sentence is also not parallel because the verbs "does" and "took" do not have the same structure. The sentence should be "...Jenny does her homework and then takes her dog...". The third sentence is also wrong because the verbs "read" and "watched" have the same structure, but "was playing" does not. The sentence should be "...Shane read a book, watched a movie, and played...".