{"id":50446,"date":"2020-05-07T01:15:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T01:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/aee\/aee-1361-grammar-2-professional-parallels-for-polished-business-english-emails\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T15:41:43","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T15:41:43","slug":"aee-1361-grammar-2-professional-parallels-for-polished-business-english-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allearsenglish.com\/aee-1361-grammar-2-professional-parallels-for-polished-business-english-emails\/","title":{"rendered":"AEE 1361: Grammar 2: Professional Parallels for Polished Business English Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Have you ever sent an email to the wrong person?<\/p>\n

Have you ever sent an email in English and immediately regretted it? <\/p>\n

There are so many different mistakes that can be made in written communication.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to look at the best ways to ensure that your written communication is as sophisticated and proper as possible. <\/p>\n

As a reminder, we have Aubrey here for a grammar series.<\/p>\n

This is the second post in her series, as we talked a few weeks ago about making sure your sentences aren\u2019t too simple in a presentation.<\/p>\n

This is how to create the very best communications to help set you apart as a more advanced English speaker. <\/p>\n

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Typical Problem With Business Correspondence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you\u2019ve ever sent an email to the wrong person, then you know how embarrassing this can be.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all made mistakes when it comes to sending out communication, particularly in the workplace. <\/p>\n

As you are working to become more experienced with English, you are going to make mistakes in the workplace.<\/p>\n

You are going to have frustrations and challenges, and you will ultimately send out communication that isn\u2019t your best or intended for a given audience.<\/p>\n

You live and learn from these mistakes, and there are plenty of them that you may experience particularly in the workplace. <\/p>\n

It can be disastrous when sending business emails to accidentally share highly sensitive information with the wrong person. <\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re going to talk about another problem we face when composing business correspondence, and that is called parallel structure. <\/p>\n

Simply put, parallel structure is making everything in a sentence match. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s much more to this of course, but this is a really important topic to cover.<\/p>\n

You will come to understand what parallel structure is, what it means, and how you can be sure to focus on this in your communication. <\/p>\n

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Why Is This Important?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

So why is it so important to use parallel structure?<\/p>\n

You want to write emails and communication that are concise, to the point, and full of useful information.<\/p>\n

A big part of this is to use something like parallel structure because it helps your communication to look polished.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s vital to use parallel structure in all conversation and writing, but we\u2019re focusing on business emails today.<\/p>\n

This is because so much of our communication at work these days is through email, especially right now with coronavirus! <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not using parallel structure, your language level appears lower and less sophisticated. <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t what you want as you\u2019re working so hard to become stronger in English!<\/p>\n

You also run the risk of colleagues taking your emails less seriously, or ignoring them entirely. <\/p>\n

Though simple mistakes happen all the time in email communication, if you can focus on something like parallel structure it helps you so much in the long run.<\/p>\n

The fact is that how you write says everything about you, especially when this is your primary type of communication.<\/p>\n

When you are communicating in this way, the other person can\u2019t see your face or hear your knowledgeable tone of voice. <\/p>\n

You want to communicate successfully, especially in written communication in your job.<\/p>\n

This is one way of doing that, and so you will understand exactly how this works. <\/p>\n

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Understanding Parallel Structure<\/strong><\/h3>\n

So what is parallel structure?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve already said that this is about making everything in a sentence match\u2013but what exactly does that mean?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at a couple of examples so that you can see this at work. <\/p>\n

We\u2019d say, \u201ca desk and a pencil\u201d instead of \u201ca desk and the pencil\u201d. <\/p>\n

We\u2019d say \u201cI feel excited, happy and nervous,\u201d not \u201cI feel excited, happy and am feeling nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

This means that you are using the same grammar pattern or structure on both sides of certain linking words. <\/p>\n

So in the examples above you can see that adding another word is unnecessary.<\/p>\n

You can see that you want to keep the sentence uniform with the same pattern or structure.<\/p>\n

It should all fit and align and work in the same sort of way throughout the sentence. <\/p>\n

This not only makes our sentences grammatically accurate, but it sounds much better and more polished. <\/p>\n

You can clearly tell when the sentence is following this same pattern, and a good way to test it is to read it out loud. <\/p>\n

There are a lot of complex rules about parallel structure, but today we will teach you the two main ones.<\/p>\n

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Parallel Structure In A Series of Two Or More<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The first one we\u2019ll look at to help you understand this is parallel structure in a series of two or more.<\/p>\n

On either side of a conjunction, you need matching grammar forms.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s compare and contrast the wrong way and then the right way, so that you can understand how this works.<\/p>\n

You will come to understand which way is wrong and why, and then what the right way is to communicate such a thought. <\/p>\n