Hi folks, Before we start discussing whether grammar is more important in parallelism or logic, lets look at the following sentence. A. John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posting his pictures online. B. John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online. Which choice do you think is correct – A or B. Which of them is grammatically parallel? Both A and B look to be grammatically parallel, however only B makes logical sense. How do we say that? When you look at the meaning of the sentence, you will notice that structurally “storing enough food and water” and “posting his pictures online” represent “how” John prepared for the impending currency crisis. However, logically “posting his pictures online” has nothing to do with how John prepared for the impending currency crisis. On the other hand, choice B is structurally different where the sentence is so written such that “posted his pictures online” is a separate activity from preparing from “preparing for impending currency crisis”, thus making the entire sentence logical. https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Free-Trial.png TAKE AWAY: PARALLELISM - GO BY LOGIC Every time we get to a problem pertaining to parallelism, instinctively we check the grammatical structure of the entities to make the list parallel. Now, the entities must have same grammatical structure to make the list parallel, alright. What we must keep in mind is that the grammatically parallel entities in the list must convey the LOGICAL INTENDED meaning of the sentence. If the grammatically parallel entities make the sentence illogical, then the list is not considered parallel. HOW TO GET TO THE LOGIC So, now we know that when we get to solve a parallelism problem, we must first understand the logical meaning of the sentence, and accordingly make the entities grammatically parallel to convey that meaning. A grammatically correct parallel list will still be incorrect if it does not convey logical meaning. https://e-gmat.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Celebrating-Milestones1.png There are two essential things that can lead us to the logical meaning of a sentence: 1. Understand the context of the sentence: It is very important to spend some time with the original sentence, analyzing it to decipher the logical intended meaning. The original sentence always sets the context for the logical meaning. Even if any enetity in the list conveys illogical meaning, that is a clear hint that we must correct that entity first for logical parallelism and then make it grammatically parallel with other logical entities in the list. 2. Pay close attention to sentence structure: Knowledge of sentence structure helps in determining the correct role of the entities in the list so that they can convey logical sense. This knowledge also helps in choosing appropriate grammatical structure of the entities to keep them grammatically parallel. GUIDED PRACTICE We have changed a few words in some of the official questions and the answer choices so that our discussion on the topic later in the article is more pertinent to parallelism without the fear of getting digressed to other conceptual errors. Try these questions before viewing the explanations. GUIDED EXAMPLE 1 John prepared for Hurricane Sandy in advance, storing enough food and water, purchased flashlights and candles for possible power outages, and charging his cellphone to reach out to authorities in case of emergency. A. storing enough food and water, purchased flashlights and candles for possible power outages, and charging B. storing enough food and water, purchased flashlights and candles for possible power outages, had charged C. storing enough food and water, purchasing flashlights and candles for possible power outages, and charging D. stored enough food and water, purchased flashlights and candles for possible power outages, and charged E. stored enough food and water, and purchased flashlights and candles for possible power outages, being charged MEANING ANAYSIS: It is very essential to understand the meaning of the sentence. The sentence says that John prepared himself for Hurricane Sandy. Following is the list of things he did for his preparation: A. He stored enough food and water, B. He purchased flashlights and candles to handle power crisis, and C. He charged his cellphone for emergency use. ERROR ANALYSIS: (Related only to Parallelism) There is a list of things that John did to prepare himself for Hurricane Sandy. The verb-ing modifier "storing..." correctly modifies the preceding clause, giving additional information as to what all John did in his preparation. Since there is list of things John did, the entities in this list must be parallel. However, "purchased..." is not parallel to "storing..." and "charging..." PoE: Since we are talking about the logical and grammatical parallelism in this article, let us take a look at those answer choices that stand incorrect despite being grammatically parallel. Here, we will also analyze the correct answer choice to reinforce the importance of Logic in parallelism. GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT BUT LOGICALLY INCORRECT CHOICE D: stored enough food and water, purchased flashlights and candles for possible power outages, and charged: This choice is grammatically sound because all the entities in this choice are grammatically parallel. Notice that "stored...", "purchased...", and "charged..." are now parallel to "prepared" as well. However, despite being grammatically parallel, this choice is incorrect because the meaning conveyed by this choice is ILLOGICAL. Per this choice, the entities in the list do no present information as to HOW John prepared for Sandy. These entities are now independent entities and the choice now conveys that John performed all these four actions independent of each other. This is not the intended meaning of the sentence. CORRECT CHOICE C: storing enough food and water, purchasing flashlights and candles for possible power outages, and charging: This choice is CORRECT because it is not only grammatically parallel but also logically parallel. The three verb-ing modifiers in the correctly modifies the preceding clause, presenting information about the modified clause. GUIDED EXAMPLE 2 Among lower paid workers union members are less likely than non-union members to be enrolled in lower end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients and spend less time with each. (GMAT Prep) A. imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend B. imposing stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending C. that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend D. that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending E. that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending MEANING ANALYSIS: Lower end insurance plans do two things: A. impose strict limits on medical services, and B. require doctors to see more patients. As a result of seeing more patients, the doctors will spend less time with each patient. https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg ERROR ANALYSIS: (Related only to Parallelism) Verb-ing modifiers “imposing…” and “requiring…” correctly modifies “low end insurance plans”. They are grammatically parallel too. However, “and spend time…” is not correctly written. This entity is not the part of the list but the result of the last entity in the list. Hence, it must be written correctly. PoE: Since we are talking about the logical and grammatical parallelism in this article, let us discuss only those answer choices that pertain to the topic of this article. GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT BUT LOGICALLY INCORRECT CHOICE B: imposing stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending: Per this grammatically correct choice, the “low end insurance policies” do three things. This certainly does not make sense because the policies do not spend less time with each (patient). GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT BUT LOGICALLY INCORRECT CHOICE C: that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend: This choice is similar to choice B: It again conveys the same illogical meaning by making all the three entities grammatically parallel to each other. GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT BUT LOGICALLY INCORRECT CHOICE E: that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending: This choice is also grammatically correct. The verb-ing modifiers “requiring…”and “spending…” preceded by comma modifies the preceding clause. This modification conveys absolutely illogical meaning. It now says that the result of imposing stricter limits are that the doctors will have to see more patients and the policies will spend less time with each patient. CORRECT CHOICE D: that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending: This choice corrects the list by making “impose…” and “require…” grammatically parallel to each other. Verb-ing modifier “spending” preceded by comma correctly presents the result of the preceding action, correctly conveying the result of doctors seeing more patients TAKEAWAYS 1. It is not enough for the entities in the list just to be grammatically parallel. The grammatically correct entities must convey LOGICAL meaning. 2. Grammatically parallel list will stand incorrect if it communicates illogical meaning. 3. Logic governs the grammatical structure of the entities in the parallel list. EXERCISE QUESTIONS We have changed a few words in some of the official questions and the answer choices so that our discussion on the topic later in the article is more pertinent to parallelism without the fear of getting digressed to other conceptual errors. Try these questions Question 1 Since digital recording offers essentially perfect reproduction - on compact discs, digital audiotapes, or digital videodiscs - audiophiles can accumulate music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality. (GMAT Prep) A. music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging B. music, transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and no damage to C. music, transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to D. music and transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and then digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging E. music and transfer it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to https://gmatclub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/gmat2-banner11-e1373945998281.jpg Question 2 As the etched lines on computer memory chips have become thinner and the chips’ circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have vastly increased. (GMAT Prep) A. the chips’ circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have B. the chips’ circuits more complex, the power of both the chips and the electronic devices they drive has C. the chips’ circuits are more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive has D. their circuits are more complex, the power of both the chips and the electronic devices they drive have E. their circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have Thanks.

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PARALLELISM: GRAMMAR VS LOGIC

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plonkdrunk007

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21 Mar 2016, 22:19

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egmat

Hi All,

First of all, I would like thank all of you for appreciating this article and showering Kudos. Such overwhelming responses keep us motivated to write more articles.

Here is the detailed explanation for both the exercise questions.

EXERCISE QUESTION: 1

Since digital recording offers essentially perfect reproduction - on compact discs, digital audiotapes, or digital videodiscs - audiophiles can accumulate music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality. (GMAT Prep)

A. music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging
B. music, transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and no damage to
C. music, transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to
D. music and transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and then digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging
E. music and transfer it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to

MEANING ANAYSIS:

Let us first understand the meaning of the sentence. This step is extremely necessary to understand what the LOGICAL intended meaning of the sentence is.

The sentence says that because digital recording offers perfect reproduction, audiophiles can collect music by doing three things:
a. transferring them from one format to another,
b. copying it, and
c. digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging the sound quality.

ERROR ANALYSIS:

• There is a list of three things through which audiophiles can accumulate music. All three are the part of the process that completes the process of accumulation of music in audiophiles. All the entities are correctly written in verb-ing modifier form, meaning they all provide information as to how the music is accumulated in audiophiles.
• There is another list in the third entity of the first list – altering it with:
a. little effort, and
b. not damaging the sound quality.

The first entity of this sub-list is a noun phrase made up of adjective + noun. The second entity is also a noun phrase. However, the grammatical structure of this entity is different from the other. Here we have an adverb (not) followed by a gerund – a noun that denotes action. This entity can very well be written in the form of the first entity as “no damage”.
• Plural pronoun “them” does not agree in number with its singular antecedent “music”.

PoE:

A. music, transferring them from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging: Incorrect for the reasons mentioned above.

B. music, transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort and no damage to: Correct. This choice not only maintains the grammatical parallelism of both the main list and the sub list but also maintains the logical parallelism, conveying the logical meaning.

C. music, transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to: Incorrect. Grammatically, this choice is correct. The list per this choice is - audiophiles can:
a. accumulate music,
b. transfer it…
c. copy it, and
d. alter it…
Grammatically, all the entities are parallel here, but now they convey a very different meaning. The last three entities in the list are no more the three steps of accumulating music in audiophiles. All these entities are independent entities now. This choice clearly stands INCORRECT despite being grammatically parallel because it violates the LOGICAL intended meaning of the sentence.

D. music and transfer it from one format to another, copy it, and then digitally altering it with little effort and not damaging: Incorrect.
1. Use of “and” after music is incorrect.
2. “not damaging” is not parallel to “little effort”.

E. music and transfer it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally alter it with little effort and no damage to: Incorrect. Use of “and” after music is incorrect as it creates an unintended list which is not even parallel.

EXERCISE QUESTION: 2

As the etched lines on computer memory chips have become thinner and the chips’ circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have vastly increased. (GMAT Prep)

A. the chips’ circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have
B. the chips’ circuits more complex, the power of both the chips and the electronic devices they drive has
C. the chips’ circuits are more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive has
D. their circuits are more complex, the power of both the chips and the electronic devices they drive have
E. their circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have

MEANING ANAYSIS:

• The etched lines on computer memory chips have become thinner, and the chips’ circuits have become more complex. These have resulted into two things:
1. the power of the chips have increased, and
2. the electronic devices they derive have increased.

ERROR ANALYSIS:

• From the meaning analysis, we can logically say that the two changes in the memory chips have resulted in increase in the power of the chips. But it is not logical to say that these changes have led to increase in the devices they drive. Increase in the number of devices these chips drive depend on many other factors. Hence, despite being GRAMMATICALLY correct, this choice stands LOGICALLY incorrect.

PoE:

A. the chips’ circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have: Incorrect for the reason stated above.

B. the chips’ circuits more complex, the power of both the chips and the electronic devices they drive has: Correct. This choice is grammatically as well as logically correct. The changes in the memory chips have resulted in increase in power of the chips as well as the devices they drive.

C. the chips’ circuits are more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive has: Incorrect.
1. Use of “are” is incorrect. The effect of the changes can still be felt in the present.
2. Repeats the logical parallelism error as in choice A.
3. Singular “has” does not agree in number with its plural subject.

D. their circuits are more complex, the power of both the chips and the electronic devices they drive have: Incorrect.
1. Same verb tense error as in choice C.
2. Plural verb “have” does not agree in number with its singular subject “the power”.

E. their circuits more complex, both the power of the chips and the electronic devices they drive have: Incorrect. Same logical parallelism error as in choice A.

Thanks.

Dear Rajat,

This is related to ques #2. I understood why option B is the right answer but my query is related to the first half of the same question. Can Noun's noun be PARALLEL to Noun?
Here as per OA B, "the etched lines" (NOUN) is PARALLEL to "the chips’ circuits" (NOUN's NOUN). Would really appreciate a clear response on this.

Thanks

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03 Apr 2017, 16:40

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Hi, please help me understand the sentence discussed in the beginning of this post.
"John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online. "
Here, does "posted" refer to "John prepared for impending currency crisis" ? because storing.... and posted... are in parallel. If yes, then verb+ed modifier refers to the nearest noun/noun phrase, in this case, "impending currency crisis" which does not make sense.

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04 Aug 2018, 01:49

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"Before we start discussing whether grammar is more important in parallelism or logic, lets look at the following sentence.

A. John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posting his pictures online.
B. John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online. "

Hi,

While I agree that the first answers does not make much sense, I doubt whether the second is correct. A point to consider:

The portion "<...>, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online." is encapsulated with a comma and a point. Since there's an -ing modifier, it introduces a subj.+verb modification (how John prepared),.. But the use of and in this case implies two ideas how ho prepared. <...> and posted <...> is not parallel to the -ing modifier. Thus this use makes this usage structurally incorrect because a (,) is missing the word "future" (<...> future, and posted <...>). A comma would have clearly separated the modifier from the second verb.

Please let me know what I miss here.

Thanks

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02 Sep 2018, 21:07

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wow ...this part's really tricky
thanks a lot

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08 Sep 2018, 07:00

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egmat

Among lower paid workers union members are less likely than non-union members to be enrolled in lower end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients and spend less time with each. (GMAT Prep)

A. imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend
B. imposing stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending
C. that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend
D. that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending
E. that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending

Dear E-gmat,

Thank you for such useful information. I have a question regarding the usage of V-ing modifiers. In your explanation, you claim that when V-ing word comes after a comma in a sentence, it modifies the main subject+verb of the sentence. In this case the correct answer is D. According to your rules, the modifier ",spending ..." basically has to refer to "plans require" because "doctors" is an object. Yet, you claim that the choice correctly says that "plans require doctors to see more patients, spending ..." and that "the doctors spend less time with the patients". Could you please explain how I may have mixed some rules here or missed something? Can such a modifier not always refer to the main subj.+verb?

Thank you

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10 Sep 2018, 13:26

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extremely useful ! As a non-native speaker , I've found that it's truly hard to get the extended meaning of a complicated sentence with lots of modifiers .

will need to practice more then

thanks for sharing

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21 Jul 2020, 23:40

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Before we start discussing whether grammar is more important in parallelism or logic, lets look at the following sentence.

A. John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posting his pictures online.
B. John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online.

Which choice do you think is correct – A or B. Which of them is grammatically parallel? Both A and B look to be grammatically parallel, however only B makes logical sense. How do we say that?

When you look at the meaning of the sentence, you will notice that structurally “storing enough food and water” and “posting his pictures online” represent “how” John prepared for the impending currency crisis. However, logically “posting his pictures online” has nothing to do with how John prepared for the impending currency crisis.

On the other hand, choice B is structurally different where the sentence is so written such that “posted his pictures online” is a separate activity from preparing from “preparing for impending currency crisis”, thus making the entire sentence logical.

********************
I grasped the concept of making sure that the sentence is logically sound before it is structurally parallel. But, I have a doubt in the example you gave here:

John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online

The bold modifier is a verb-ed modifier, and as per rules of grammar, it should modify the nearest noun/noun phrase, which in this case is Currency Crisis and not John.
The usage of verb-ing modifier makes complete sense to me but how this verb-ed modifier is modifying John is beyond me.

If we remove the verb-ing modifier, it becomes:
John prepared for impending currency crisis, posted his pictures online - Which doesn't make any sense.

Please help! egmat

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ankitcbr

I grasped the concept of making sure that the sentence is logically sound before it is structurally parallel. But, I have a doubt in the example you gave here:

John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online

The bold modifier is a verb-ed modifier, and as per rules of grammar, it should modify the nearest noun/noun phrase, which in this case is Currency Crisis and not John.
The usage of verb-ing modifier makes complete sense to me but how this verb-ed modifier is modifying John is beyond me.

If we remove the verb-ing modifier, it becomes:
John prepared for impending currency crisis, posted his pictures online - Which doesn't make any sense.

Please help! egmat

Hello ankitcbr,
Thank you for the query.

I am afraid to say that your analysis of the sentence is not correct. The word "posted" in this sentence is NOT a verb-ed modifier. It is a verb because John performed the action of posting his pictures online. So, the two verbs in this sentence - prepared and posted - form the list that is both grammatically and logically parallel.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.
Shraddha

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ankitcbr

Hello ankitcbr,
Thank you for the query.

Thanks.
Shraddha

Such a very good thread on modifier. Thanks for this.
I have a doubt in the second option:
John prepared for impending currency crisis, storing enough food and water for future and posted his pictures online
The bold one is another clause and the subject is JOHN. Don't we need a comma before " 2nd and " as "storing enough food and water for future" is a modifier for preceding clause.

Request you to help me in resolving this query.

Regards,
Gaurav

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