Delivering Parallelism and Anaphora

Read parallel structures and repeated openings so the pattern builds rather than drones.

Parallelism places similar ideas in similar grammatical forms. Anaphora is a special case: the repetition of the same word or phrase at the start of successive clauses. Both are built to be heard. Consider this original example: 'We will build where others abandoned; we will listen where others shouted; we will stay where others fled. ' The repetition of 'we will' and 'where others' creates a frame, and the changing verbs carry the meaning.

A fluent reader keeps the repeated words steady, almost like a drumbeat, and puts the stress on what changes: build, abandoned; listen, shouted; stay, fled. Intensity usually rises across the series, with the last item delivered most strongly, because writers tend to order items from least to most powerful. The common failure is reading each repetition identically, which turns a crescendo into a drone. Another failure is stressing the repeated phrase itself, which buries the changing words that hold the argument.

• 1Anaphora repeats a phrase at the start of successive clauses.
• 2Keep the repeated words steady; stress what changes.
• 3Build intensity across the series toward the last item.