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.





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.



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.



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.



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.



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



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



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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Thanks for another brilliant piece of article.



I think there is a mistake here. D is not even grammatically parallel.

Ans B.


Ans B.

Hi Vips0000,

Thanks for pointing out this issue. It is just a typo error. We have edited the text accordingly in the article.

Shraddha
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Kudos! Great article as always.

While going through this article, I have actually developed a few doubts about the usage of comma (,).

For the below sentence:

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

Shouldn't I be able to eliminate the sentence based on the missing , (that is highlighted in red here) ? I mean, aren't parallel modifiers supposed to be in a list, where the last modifier has to start with 'and' and preceded by a comma (,).

Is it not always the case?

Best

Hi @jumsumtak,

It is true that whenever we have a parallel list, the last entity in the list must be preceded by "and" or for that matter an appropriate marker. However, comma is used before this marker preceding the last entity only when the list has three or more entities. In case of a list that contains only two entities, generally comma is not used before the marker preceding the last entity in the list. This rule is applicable to all the entities in the list and not just the modifiers.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Analysis:
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.

Accumulate Music seems to be the prime activity. Transfer, Copy, Alter seems to a set of steps which tells us how Audiophiles accumulate music.
"not damaging the sound quality" seems to take the sentence in contrast. Hence I think it's not intended to be parallel to the other activities of copy, transfer or alter.

Alternatively reading the sentence after removing the clause ", transferring it from one format to another, copying it, and digitally altering it with little effort" sounds logical.

B seems to be the best choice which conveys the intended meaning clearly.



Analysis:

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.

Both should be placed after power OR power should be repeated (making it wordy.)
Has agrees with singular power.

Hence, B seems the best answer.

Let me know if I am correct.

Thanks,
Soumen

Hi folks,

Thanks for liking this article. Here comes the PDF of this article in case you want to download it.
Thanks
Shraddha

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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


What's wrong with C option?

Regards
sjit

Question#1 is tough from logic perspective.
I got stuck between the answer choices B and C.

In the first instance, I thought that the meaning of the sentence is: " An audiophile accumulates the music and then he transfers the music, then copy it and then he alters it digitally without much effort and damage to the sound quality in order to reproduce the music"..

However, the real meaning is that the audiophile actually accumulates the music/ reproduces it by transferring it, copying it, and altering it digitally with less effort and with no damage to the sound quality.

I am still not clear on this.

Answer to question #2 should be B IMO.

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:
Since digital recording offers....audiophiles can accumulate music by:
- transferring it from one to another
-copying it
-digitally altering it
---with little effort
---with no damage to sound quality.

A. them is incorrect, should be it. Not damaging is not parallel.
B. Correct.
C. Incorrect. Now it means that Audiophiles can accumulate music, can transfer it, can digitally alter it.
D. Incorrect. Parallelism error- Altering is not Parallel to transfer and copy.
E. Incorrect. Alter is not parallel to copying.

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
AS
The etched lines on Computer chips have become thinner
and the chips' circuits more complex
Power of both the chips and electronic devices they drive has vastly increased.

A. Incorrect-they drive the chips and electronic power not the power.
B. Correct.
C. Incorrect- Same as A
D. Incorrect- are is not required.
E. Incorrect-Same as A

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

I am stuck here with B and C. I chose C. Could you please discuss this question in detail.

Whereas the question 2 : Answer B

Power of Both X and Y is correct over Both the Power of X and Y which is incorrect construction.

hence A, C and E gone. in case of D , ... become thinner and their circuits are more complex ..... the construction is not parallel and incorrect. Hence the answer be B

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.
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Wonderful post eGMAT..

Look forward to many such on the forum...
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Thanks. We just posted an article on imperfect lists. Check that out as well.

-Rajat
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Really great to know that... Can you please share the link..?
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Hi debayan,

Here is the link for the new article:
parallelism-imperfect-list-142791.html

Thanks.
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Thanks e-GMAT..
Hope this will be another helpful post on verbal like your previous posts..
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Hi Shradhha/Rajat,
I'm having some confusion over the 2nd qs. answer...!! Need your help for clarification guys...

As you've mentioned that 'B' is the correct answer and Use of “are” is incorrect (and The effect of the changes can still be felt in the present.), then the the second clause (or if we remove the part "the etched lines on computer memory chips have become thinner" from the clause starting with 'As') following 'and' in the 1st part of the sentence (i.e. the part starting with 'As') is as follows:

"As the chips’ circuits more complex"...It doesn't contain any conjugated verb(rather, any verb) so it's basically a fragment.How it can be a fragment NOT a clause..? Would you please help me understand it..?

Highly appreciate your reply on this.
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Hi debayan,

In this construction, we have ellipses at play. Take a look at the sentence with correct answer choice B:

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

Because the verb “have become” already appears once in the sentence, it has been kept understood for the second part. With this verb in place, now we have clear clauses.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Hi Shradhha,
Thanks for the clarification...

Few quick qs on it :
1. Is it 650+ or 700+ level qs..?
2.How often we may expect this kind of qs.(where the verb in a clause is kept understood) in GMAT..?
3.How we can tackle or gauge this kind of qs..?

Had there been ONLY the 2nd part (i.e. "the chips’ circuits more complex") of the clause starting with 'As', I think we would have required the conjugated verb for sure... Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Really appreciate your feedback.
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