NCO Primary Leadership Subjects
Rule 5: Write Short Paragraphs, Continued
Parallel structure in a paragraph links sentences with closely related meanings and
Use parallel
importance.
structure
Example:
Strong leaders have two important traits. For their mission, they have great
dedication. For their soldiers, they have a strong sense of caring about their
welfare. (The parallel structure, For their..., they have..., reflects the equal
importance of the two traits.)
You can also use parallelism in sentences to reinforce the relation between sentence
elements.
Example:
FAULTY: Two traits of strong leaders are their great dedication to the mission
and they also care for the welfare of their soldiers.
REVISED: Two traits of strong leaders are their great dedication to the mission
and their great care for the welfare of their soldiers.
Make your subparagraphs and lists parallel.
Example:
Parallelism
Example:
Two Traits of a Strong Leader:
a. A dedication to the mission.
b. A strong sense of caring for the welfare of soldiers.
This is an example of nonparallel subparagraphs:
Example:
Nonparallelism
Example:
Two Traits of a Strong Leader:
a. Dedication to the mission.
b. To care for the welfare of soldiers.
3-18
Writing Mechanics and Composition
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