Writing with style - Parallelism

      In an interview a TV presenter once said that he preferred reading texts which were "melodious" and balanced. One technique that students can use to make their writing melodious, stylish and graceful is called Parallelism or also parallel structure or parallel construction. 
      Let's consider the following sentences:
                
1. The old woman was smart, polite and gave money to the poor.
2. She was beautiful but a spoilt child.

    Something is wrong with them, right? - They aren't very easy to read because the rhythm is broken. Now let's change them:

 1. The old woman was smart, polite and generous.
 2. The child was beautiful but spoilt.
   The tone of the second pair of sentences is different - they are easier to read, smoother, more melodious and more balanced.
So parallelism takes place when expressions that are similar in content are similar in function. 

Here are some more examples of parallel constructions: 

This animated film is full of fun, adventure and comedy.

At night you could hear voices chatting in the darkness and insects buzzing in the tress. 

As he worked overtime and because he came up with innovative ideas, they gave him a promotion. 

This product is cheap to buy and easy to use. 

He spoke slowly and confidently.

I felt that this was just one more in a very long series of fundamentally cheerful, well-ordered, pleasantly uneventful days. ( Bill Bryson) 

With life as short as it is, with so many pressing demands on our time, with so many books of information waiting to be read, why should we spend precious time on works of imagination? (L. Perrine, Story and Structure)

On the one hand, they may want schemes and intrigues, mixed identities, disguises, secret letters, hidden passages and similar paraphernalia. On the other hand, they may demand fights by land and sea, dangerous missions, hazardous journeys, hair-breadth escapes. (L. Perrine, Story and Structure)


For exercises on parallelism, go to:  http://grammar.about.com/od/grammarexercises/a/completionparallelism.htm

Decaying housing estates

Dictation - upper-intermediate/advanced

         Housing estates with crumbling walls, leaking roofs and broken windows are a common occurrence in the country. Some lie empty. Others are inhabited, as indicated by their façades decorated with satellite TV dishes and colourful arrays of washing.
The empty buildings are the remains of state housing projects built for employees of factories and the families of officers in military bases. When the factories and the bases shut down, the people left. Some of the blocks of flats remain empty to this day.
        Others, however, attracted destitute and homeless families, usually Gypsies. Some of the derelict apartment blocks are, theoretically, municipal property rented to poor citizens. The majority were built for the Gypsies, who were forced to settle after the 1960s. Suffering from high unemployment rates after 1989, most of the inhabitants were unable to pay their utility bills and token rent. Most city councils ignored the problem for years. The results are ghettos where poverty, crime and ethnic tensions are the norm.
      There is another type of decaying houses, which you notice because of their elaborate turn-of-the-19th Century façade. Such buildings are usually monuments of culture, and their piteous condition is entirely intentional. As a matter of course, their owners want them demolished and replaced by some flashy new business centre, yet another shopping mall, or block of flats. The only way to achieve this is to leave the building exposed to the elements and hope it collapses. To rephrase Stalin: no monument of culture, no problem. 

The Solar Backpack

        Dictation - intermediate/ upper intermediate

        The solar backpack is typically a cloth sack that is portable enough to be carried on the back or over the shoulders of the individual.  It is normally equipped with a flexible solar panel, batteries, cords, plugs, light bulbs, and charge controller.  The mechanism allows for the conversion of sunlight into usable electricity to provide power to common portable electronic appliances and devices. It usually delivers power that can last for up to 120 watt-hours per day. 

        The solar powered backpack has evolved from a supreme idea of charging smaller electrical devices from the sun energy. Therefore their first benefit is that it helps you to make your life easier, simpler and more comfortable. Moreover, solar power is free of charge, so you will not have any running costs, while using your backpack to charge other devices. Also you should not forget that it is a backpack, therefore you may take it with you anywhere you want. Its size and weight are specifically adjusted for relocation purposes.  The solar powered backpacks usually come with a whole set of different cell-phone adapters and USB plugs, therefore you shall not worry, almost all of your devices can be charged with the help of this miracle of high-tech-innovation.

       This device is easy to operate, safe to use, convenient to take and fashionable. It is an ideal product for living and traveling. There are many practical applications that can make it extremely functional like in the case of field research, international aid, emergency power, or disaster relief among others.

Sand

(Dictation - upper-intermediate/ advanced)       

         Among the many thousands of things that I have never been able to understand, one in particular stands out. That is the question of who was the first person who stood by a pile of sand and said, ‘You know, I bet if we took some of this and mixed it with a little potash and heated it, we could make a material that would be solid and yet transparent. We could call it glass.’ Call me obtuse, but you could stand me on a beach till the end of time and never would it occur to me to try to make it into windows.

         Much as I admire sand’s miraculous ability to be transformed into useful objects like glass and concrete, I am not a great fan of it in its natural state. To me, it is primarily a hostile barrier that stands between a car park and water. It blows in your face, gets in your sandwiches, swallows vital objects like car keys and coins. In hot countries, it burns your feet and makes you squeal and hop to the water in a fashion that people with better bodies find amusing. When you are wet, it adheres to you like stucco, and cannot be shifted with a fireman’s hose. But – and here’s the strange thing – the moment you step on a beach towel, climb into a car or walk across a recently vacuumed carpet it all falls off.

        For days afterwards, you tip astounding, mysteriously undiminishing piles of it onto the floor every time you take off your shoes, and spray the vicinity with quantities more when you peel off your socks. Sand stays with you for longer than many contagious diseases. And dogs use it as a lavatory. No, you may keep sand as far as I am concerned.

After Bill Bryson "Notes from a small island"