Parallelism for "to be" verbs

Question

Guys , 
I was going through the MGMAT SC guide and I came across the section which focussed on parallelism for verbs of the form "to be" and verbs of being.
The guide mentioned that when you see a form of the verb "to be" , be sure that the two sides of the verb are parallel . 
Then the following example was taken :

The flower bouquet was the husband's giving of love to his wife  .

Then the guide explained that the two sides of "was" is not parallel and corrected the sentence as follows

The flower bouquet was the husband's loving gift to his wife.

I don't know how the structural parallelism is maintained in the latter case . Can anyone give some more examples and describe the kind of structures that are intended to be made parallel such as phrases , clauses , etc...

Fijisurf · Answer

I suspect that in the second example "flower" is parallel to "gift" (both are concrete nouns).
In the first concrete noun "flower" (concrete noun) is not parallel to "giving" (action noun, similar to running, explosion etc.).

Hope I am right.

Fijisurf · Answer

I recall that MGMAT SC guide has a rule:

1. "concrete" noun can be parallel only "concrete" noun
2. "action" noun can be parallel to "action" and to "-ing" word (
3. "action" noun can be parallel to "-ing" word, if the "-ing" word is followed by "of" (for example, giving of flowers, running of children etc.)

devashish · Answer

I believe you are mentioning MGMAT SC in the context of maintaining Parallelism for Linking Verbs. ( Verbs that express the condition of the subject rather than focussing on the action eg.smell, taste, resemble etc ).

Both Sides of the Linking verbs should be parallel as in the above example.
Other examples could be:

Correct: A good deed reflects good character
Incorrect: A good deed reflects having good character.

In the incorrect version the two sides of 'reflect' are not parallel, hence incorrect.

Hope this helps.

Raths · Answer

Tnx Fijisurf ,
I can make some sense out of it but I want some more examples pinpointing the structure which are suppose to be parallel , different kinds of possible structures which
can exist under this scenario and some examples to work on . MGMAT SC has very less content for this topic. Tnx once again though , atleast now I know something.

Raths · Answer

Tnx Devashish...but I am worrying that if it comes in any practice test or actual GMAT , then it will be more subtle and therefore I wanted few more examples with some explanation to work on this topic.

Parallelism for "to be" verbs

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