Parallelism, parallelism...wherefore art thou?
Like all teachers (or at least all the ones I've talked to in the past thirty years), I love vacation time. Nonetheless, I find myself succumbing to the magic of September: new books, new school supplies, and--best of all--new people to meet. As I promote my new writing textbook, I've enjoyed connecting with friends in person, and here on LinkedIn as well as on FB, over the summer. It's hard to believe August is drawing to a close: it's bittersweet.
Although I've had some idyllic down-time both here on beautiful Bowen Island and away on a couple of family trips, I've had a few meetings with clients and friends in Vancouver. Along with my fellow transit commuters, I'm surrounded on the bus by signs reminding people of the rules for polite and considerate seating protocols. At my advanced age (sigh!) I can barely avoid being offered a seat by some charming young person who takes one look at me and says, "Please, ma'am! Take my seat!" Thank you, charming young persons! I only wish you were being informed of your obligations in a grammatically correct manner. Here is what we are told, in a nutshell (love that cliche):
"The area provides safe and accessible seating for those who use wheelchairs, scooters, other mobility aids, seniors and customers with infant strollers."
Proper sentence structures requires us to make sure that listed items are parallel in the sense that they all go with the rest of the sentence in the same way as the first item. In the sentence above, all items should go with the main verb, "use." The seats are for those who use wheelchairs, as the sentence begins. Scooters and other mobility aids are also things people use. So far, so good! But are the seats for those who use seniors and those who use customers with infant strollers? If so, I'd love to know what they use them for ...
How could we fix this? Put the parts together that fit together--and anything that doesn't fit can't be in that part of the sentence containing the list. Here's one suggestion:
"The area provides safe and accessible seating for seniors, and for those who use wheelchairs, scooters, other mobility aids, or infant strollers."
Kudos to anyone with the chutzpah to bring this issue to the attention of anyone in a position of transit authority. You'll be able to echo, with perfect parallelism, the words of Julius Caesar: I came; I saw; I conquered. As for me, I just like to criticize from the sidelines.
Next time, find out my pet peeve at the supermarket...
Better yet, enroll in a writing course this fall, and/or buy my textbook (if you haven't already done so)... Roll on, September!
An Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing for University Students