Parallelism is a grammar rule that says items in a list (or items being compared) should use the same grammatical form.

The easiest way to see what this means is to look at a sentence with bad parallelism.

Bad example

My dog’s favorite activities are running and to jump.

In this sentence, two elements (the dog’s favorite activities) are placed side by side. Both are labeled as “activities,” so they should be written in the same grammatical structure:

• running
• to jump

The problem is that these two items don’t match. When you group elements like this, you should use the same grammatical structure for each one. It doesn’t matter which structure you choose - single words, phrases, or even full clauses - as long as the items in the group use the same kind of structure.

Corrected examples

My dog’s favorite activities are running and jumping.

My dog’s favorite activities are to run and to jump.

Now the sentence is parallel. You can use the -ing form or the to + verb form; the key is that both items match.

Use the following steps to get these questions right on test day:

1. Identify which elements are being set next to each other and compared.
2. Identify which answer choice makes those elements the same grammatical setup.

Example

Now, see if you can find the problem:

Making small talk with coworkers before a meeting and how to prepare a quality spreadsheet are among my strengths in the office.

A. NO CHANGE
B. Making small talk with coworkers, before a meeting, and how to prepare
C. How to make small talk with coworkers before a meeting and how to prepare
D. How to make small talk with coworkers before a meeting and preparing

Do you know the answer?

Whether you answered it correctly or not, let’s walk through the reasoning.

The word “and” connects two long phrases, which tells you those two elements are being grouped together. Here, the two grouped elements act as the dual subjects of the sentence (with the verb “are”):

• “making small talk with coworkers before a meeting”
• “how to prepare a quality spreadsheet”

To be parallel, both subjects need the same grammatical construction. As written, the first element begins with an -ing form (“making”), while the second begins with a “how to” construction.

So which answer choice makes both elements match?

The correct choice is C: How to make small talk with coworkers before a meeting and how to prepare. This is tricky because a more concise fix would be to make both elements -ing forms, but that option isn’t offered. Choice C is the only one that makes both elements use the same “how to” structure.