PARALLEL STRUCTURES

1
PARALLEL STRUCTURES

• Adding Rhythm To Your Writing

2
The Twilight Zone

• There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is
  known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space
  and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle
  ground between light and shadow, between science
  and superstition, and it lies between the pit of
  mans fears, and the summit of his knowledge.
  This is the dimension of imagination. It is an
  area which we call ... THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
• (Zicree 1989, 31)

3
Star Trek

• Space
• The final frontier
• These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise
• Its 5 year mission
• To explore strange new worlds
• To seek out new life and new civilizations
• To boldly go where no man has gone before.

4
Parallelism

• Parallelism is creating grammatical rhythms with
  a number of word and sentence devices.
• These parallel structures give prose a musical
  quality that adds emphasis and sound to central
  images.

5
Literal Repetition

• Using the parallel structure of literal
  repetition, writers repeat the exact same words
  to create an echo or a trancelike refrain.
• In a piece on victory, Kristen Parker writes,
• They march off victoriously, or so they say.
  They die so victoriously, or so they think. But
  how victorious is it to bid good-bye to the
  sentiments they once knew.

6
Grammatical Repetition

• Grammatical repetition is the most common
  repetition used by writers.
• Grammatical repetition repeats identical
  grammatical structures, but with different words.
  

7
Grammatical Repetition

• Examples of this style can be seen in this
  passage from Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg
  Address
• But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we
  can not consecrate we can not hallow this
  ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
  struggled here, have consecrated it, far above
  our poor power to add or detract. The world will
  little note, nor long remember, what we say here,
  but it can never forget what they did here.

8
Rhythmic Categories

• Three Categories
• 1) Structures connected with conjunctions
• 2) Structures created with repeated phrases
• 3) Structures created with repeated clauses

9
The Imaginary Zone

• Each group is to create an imaginary zone,
  filling in the blanks to create a parody. You can
  select a subject from school (math class, history
  class, lunch, a dance, a sport) or from an
  outside interest (MTV, sports figures,
  actors/actresses, novelists, political
  personalities). Below, a group of eight-grade
  students collaborated to demonstrate how this
  assignment might be written about math

10
The Math Zone

•        There is a fifth dimension beyond that
  which is known to man. It is a dimension as acute
  as one degree and as obtuse as 179 degrees. It is
  the vast plane between simple addition and
  advanced calculus, between infinity and
  probability, and it lies between the teachers
  daily cup of hot coffee and the students daily
  pile of homework problems. This is the dimension
  of chalkboard scribbles. It is an area which we
  call the Math Zone.

11

• The __________ Zone
•           There is a fifth dimension beyond that
  which is known to man. It is a dimension as
  _________________ as ______________ and as
  _________________ as _______________. It is the
  __________________ ____________________ between
  _________________ and ________________, between
  ______________ and _________________, and it lies
  between the ________________ of _______________
  _______________, and the __________________ of
  his/her __________________. This is the dimension
  of __________________. It is an area which we
  call ... THE __________________ ZONE.

12
I Have A Dream

• Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln
  Memorial, Washington D.C. by Dr. Martin Luther
  King, Jr.
• http//www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadre
  am.htm