Writing Tips
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Index F
- face off
- faceoff
- face-off
- facilitate
- facilitator
- facsimile
- fact (1)
- fact (2)
- faculty
- fall
- false cause
- false dichotomy
- false dilemma
- Famous Five
- Farsi
- farther
- faulty comparisons
- faulty parallelism
- favour
- favourable
- favouritism
- fax
- faze
- febri-
- feel bad
- feel badly
- female
- Fenno-
- ferri-
- ferro-
- fête de la Reine
- few
- fewer
- fiber
- fibre
- figuratively
- Filipino
- financial
- financing
- Finno-
- first (1)
- first (2)
- firstly
- First Nation(s) (Linguistic recommendation from the Translation Bureau)
- first two
- fiscal
- fiscal year
- flack
- flair
- flak
- flak-catcher
- flammable
- flare
- flare out
- flare up
- flare-up
- flaunt
- flesh out
- fleur-de-lis
- fleur-de-lys
- flier
- flori-
- floriography
- flounder
- flout
- flu
- flue
- flush out
- fluvi-
- fluvio-
- flyer
- focus
- following
- follow up on
- follow-up to
- follow up with
- foot
- forbear
- forbid (someone) to
- fore-
- forebear
- forecast
- forego
- foregoing
- foregone
- foreign imports
- foreseeable
- foreword
- for free
- forgo
- former
- for same
- for the benefit of
- for the duration of
- for the reason that
- forthwith
- forward
- forwards
- founder (1)
- founder (2)
- fragment
- Franco-
- Franco-Albertan
- Franco-Manitoban
- Franco–Ontarian
- Francophone
- Franco-Prince Edward Islander
- Franco-Saskatchewanian
- Franco-Yukon
- Franco-Yukoner
- Fredericton
- Frederictoner
- Frederictonian
- free
- free from
- free of
- free of charge
- French
- french
- French-speaking Yukoner
- French typographical rules: capitalization
- French typography: abbreviations
- French typography: italics
- French typography: numerical expressions
- French typography: word division
- Frobisher Bay
- fruct-
- fructi-
- fully justified margins
- fulsome
- fun
- funding
- further
- furthermore
- future plans
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faulty parallelism
Sentence structure is parallel when a series of similar items all share the same grammatical structure—for example, all are nouns or verbs or phrases. Writers use parallelism to help readers see connections between ideas and to emphasize particular points.
But it is easy to make mistakes when trying to use parallelism in your writing. Faulty parallelism occurs when items in a series do not have the same grammatical structure.
Below are examples of sentences with faulty parallelism, followed by their corrections:
- Faulty: I like to spend my winter holiday skating, skiing, and I enjoy snowboarding as well.
Correct: I like to spend my winter holiday skating, skiing and snowboarding. [3 gerunds]
- Faulty: The sisters bought shoes, bags and then picked up a coat each.
Correct: The sisters bought shoes, bags and coats. [3 nouns]
- Faulty: Sylvain travelled by plane, boat and by train.
Correct: Sylvain travelled by plane, by boat and by train. [3 phrases]
Correct: Sylvain travelled by plane, boat and train. [3 nouns]
- Faulty: The maid has vacuumed the carpet, made the bed and has cleaned the bathroom.
Correct: The maid has vacuumed the carpet, made the bed and cleaned the bathroom. [3 past participles]
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