Parallelism- The employees were upset....

BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

This topic has expert replies

Post new topic Locked

Previous Topic Next Topic

qwerty12321: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 63; Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 9:01 am; Followed by:1 members

Parallelism- The employees were upset....

by qwerty12321 » Tue Jul 29, 2014 11:45 am

"The Employees were upset by the company's low pay, poor working condition, and they do not have enough outlets for their creativity."

In this MGMAT SC question why is company's counted across all the 3 elements?

Can we
i) Count an adjective across a parallelism?
ii) Count an adverb across a parallelism?

What all can we count across a parallelism?

Thanks

Quote

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Jul 29, 2014 11:45 am

bubbliiiiiiii: Legendary Member; Posts: 979; Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:38 am; Location: Hyderabad, India; Thanked: 49 times; Followed by:12 members; GMAT Score:700

by bubbliiiiiiii » Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:22 pm

"The Employees were upset by the company's low pay, poor working condition, and they do not have enough outlets for their creativity."

Does this sentence include the correct option?

Can we
i) Count an adjective across a parallelism?
ii) Count an adverb across a parallelism?

What all can we count across a parallelism?

Usually, an adjective can be parallel to an adjective and an adverb to an adverb. However, sometimes in very complex statements, an adjective can be parallel to an adverb and vice versa.

I don't have an example handy. I shall post as and when I come across it.

Regards,

Pranay

Quote

GMAT/MBA Expert

ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pm; Thanked: 1443 times; Followed by:247 members

by ceilidh.erickson » Sat Dec 30, 2017 4:49 pm

qwerty12321 wrote:"The Employees were upset by the company's low pay, poor working condition, and they do not have enough outlets for their creativity."

In this MGMAT SC question why is company's counted across all the 3 elements?

Can we
i) Count an adjective across a parallelism?
ii) Count an adverb across a parallelism?

What all can we count across a parallelism?

Thanks

Almost any grammatical element can be a parallel element. Here are several correct ways to write this sentence:

Parallel nouns, all modified by the possessive "company's":
The Employees were upset by the company's...
1. low pay,
2. poor working conditions, and
3. insufficient outlets for creativity.

Parallel verbs:
The Employees were upset that the company...
1. offered low pay,
2. maintained poor working conditions, and
3. provided insufficient outlets for creativity.

Parallel participles:
The company had been creating a unattractive environment for employees...
1. offering low wages,
2. maintaining poor working condition, and
3. providing insufficient outlets for creativity.

Parallel infinitives:
Disgruntled employees want their company...
1. to offer higher wages,
2. to create better working conditions, and
3. to provide more outlets for creativity.

Parallel infinitives - alternate:
Disgruntled employees want their company...
1. to offer higher wages,
2. create better working conditions, and
3. provide more outlets for creativity.

etc, etc,

In each case, each of our list items much make equal sense with the "root phrase" that comes before it.

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education