Comprehensive Study Notes on Coordination, Subordination, and Parallelism

Course Policies and Assignment Guidelines

• Word Count Regulations:
  • Exceeding the required word count by $10$ to $15$ words is permissible without penalty.
  • Exceeding the word count beyond the $10$ to $15$ word allowance results in progressive point deductions.
  • Submitting an assignment that falls under the required word count by any margin results in an automatic deduction of points.
• Reading Assignments and Testing:
  • Course readings cover Chapter $7$ through Section $7.2$, focusing on coordination and subordination.
  • Content from these readings and grammar sections is explicitly tested on unit examinations.
  • Supplementary learning modules, such as the Khan Academy module, are accessible via Blackboard.
• Writing Revision Protocol:
  • Students review essay drafts alongside instructor evaluation marks within the Blackboard assignment module.
  • Feedback indicators include highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, and marginal comments to guide essay revisions.

Coordination Principles and Rules

• Definition and Structural Function:
  • Coordination joins two related ideas of equal structural importance.
  • Connects two independent clauses (complete sentences that can stand alone as distinct thoughts).
• Comma Splices and Sentence Errors:
  • A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined by only a comma without an accompanying conjunction or preposition.
  • Incorrect Example: "I spent my entire paycheck last week, I am staying home this weekend."
  • Revision Strategy: Insert a coordinating conjunction after the comma to justify the punctuation mark and maintain grammatical validity.
  • Corrected Example: "I spent my entire paycheck last week, so I am staying home this weekend."
• Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS):
  • The seven coordinating conjunctions are recalled using the acronym FANBOYS:
  • For
  • And
  • Nor
  • But
  • Or
  • Yet
  • So
• Punctuation Rule for Coordinating Conjunctions:
  • A comma must always precede a coordinating conjunction when it connects two independent clauses.
  • Example 1: "I will not be attending the dance, for I have no one to go with."
  • Example 2: "I might go to the next fundraising event, or I might donate some money to the cause."
  • Semantic Variation Example: Replacing the conjunction alters the sentence logic while maintaining proper grammar: "I might not go to the next fund event, but I might donate some money to the cause."

Conjunctive Adverbs and Semicolon Mechanics

• Core Definition of Adverbs:
  • An adverb modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
• Functions of Conjunctive Adverbs:
  • Connect two independent clauses expressing complete, closely related thoughts while establishing clear logical relationships (such as addition, contrast, time, or result).
  • Assist in transitioning smoothly from one independent clause to the next without creating run-on sentences.
• Semicolon and Conjunctive Adverb Punctuation Pattern:
  • A semicolon cannot join independent clauses as casually as a comma; specific structural rules apply.
  • Standard Construction Pattern: [Independent Clause] + [ ; ] + [Conjunctive Adverb] + [ , ] + [Independent Clause].
• Common Conjunctive Adverbs:
  • Therefore
  • Furthermore
  • Moreover
  • Besides
  • Also
  • Finally
• Applied Sentence Examples:
  • Example 1 (Logical Consequence):
  • Unlinked Clauses: "Bridget wants to take part in the next Olympics." / "She trains every day."
  • Joined Construction: "Bridget wants to take part in the next Olympics; therefore, she trains every day."
  • Example 2 (Addition):
  • Joined Construction: "Alicia was late for class and stuck in traffic; furthermore, her shoe heel had broken and she had forgotten her lunch."
  • Example 3 (Time/Sequence):
  • Joined Construction: "Tim crossed the barrier, jumped over the wall, and pushed through the hole in the fence; finally, he made it to the station."

Subordination Mechanics

• Definition and Structural Function:
  • Subordination joins two related ideas of unequal importance.
  • Combines a main clause (an independent clause capable of standing alone) with a dependent clause (a clause that relies on the main clause for complete meaning).
• Subordinating Conjunctions:
  • Examples include: even though, as though, because, although, if, when.
• Applied Sentence Examples and Revisions:
  • Unrevised Component Sentences: "Tracy stopped to help the injured man." / "She would be late for work."
  • Revision Option A (Dependent clause first): "Even though Tracy would be late for work, she stopped to help the injured man."
  • Revision Option B (Main clause first): "Tracy stopped to help the injured man even though she would be late for work."
  • Manner Function Example: "Everyone in the conference room stopped talking at once as though they had been stunned into silence." (Uses the combined subordinating phrase as though).
• Punctuation Rule for Subordination:
  • Sentences cannot be linked arbitrarily; conjunctions or transitions must be placed intentionally before or after commas and semicolons to preserve clarity and structural validity.

Parallelism and Parallel Structure

• Denotative Definition:

  • Parallelism is the use of similar grammatical structures and related words, clauses, or phrases within a sentence.

• Aesthetic and Structural Role:

  • Establishes sentence rhythm, symmetry, and balance.
  • Enhances readability and aesthetic appeal.

• Consequences of Faulty Parallelism:

  • Sentences lacking parallel structure sound jarring, unnatural, unbalanced, and non-sequitur.

• Primary Rule of Alignment:

  • Express matching ideas using matching grammatical forms: pair nouns with nouns, base verbs with base verbs, gerunds with gerunds, infinitives with infinitives, and prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases.

• Detailed Analysis of Faulty vs. Corrected Parallel Structure:

  • Example 1 (Kelly's Chores):
  • Faulty: "Kelly had to iron, do the washing, and shopping before her parents arrived."
  • Structural Flaw: Inappropriately mixes a base verb ("iron"), a full verb phrase ("do the washing"), and a standalone gerund/noun ("shopping").
  • Corrected Revision A (Parallel Gerunds/Nouns): "Kelly had to do the ironing, washing, and shopping before her parents arrived."
  • Corrected Revision B (Parallel Base Verbs): "Kelly had to iron, wash, and shop before her parents arrived."
  • Example 2 (Driving Requirements):
  • Faulty: "Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and to have good eyesight."
  • Structural Flaw: Combines two abstract nouns ("coordination", "patience") with an infinitive phrase ("to have good eyesight").
  • Corrected Revision A (Parallel Nouns): "Driving a car requires coordination, patience, and good eyesight."
  • Corrected Revision B (Parallel Infinitive Frame): "Driving a car requires one to have coordination, patience, and good eyesight."
  • Example 3 (Ali's Clothing Preferences):
  • Faulty: "Ali prefers jeans to wearing a suit."
  • Structural Flaw: Directly compares a simple noun ("jeans") with a gerund phrase ("wearing a suit").
  • Corrected Revision: "Ali prefers wearing jeans to wearing a suit."
  • Semantic Note: While changing "suit" to "slacks" creates better stylistic parallelism with "jeans", grammatical parallelism specifically requires matching the verbal phrase "wearing jeans" to "wearing a suit".
  • Example 4 (Dog Walking Activities):
  • Faulty: "When I walk the dog, I like to listen to music and talking to friends on the phone."
  • Structural Flaw: Combines an infinitive phrase ("to listen") with a gerund phrase ("talking"). Isolating the second clause reveals the ungrammatical form: "I like to talking to friends on the phone."
  • Corrected Revision A (Parallel Gerunds): "When I walk the dog, I like listening to music and talking to friends on the phone."
  • Corrected Revision B (Parallel Infinitives): "When I walk the dog, I like to listen to music and talk to friends on the phone."
  • Example 5 (Committee Decision / Verb Series):
  • Faulty: "This committee needs to decide whether the company should reduce its workforce, cut its benefits, or lowering workers' wages."
  • Structural Flaw: The modal verb "should" governs the base form verbs "reduce" and "cut", but switches improperly to the gerund "lowering" ("the company should lowering workers' wages").
  • Corrected Revision: "This committee needs to decide whether the company should reduce its workforce, cut its benefits, or lower workers' wages."

• Preposition and Marker Consistency in Series:

  • When initiating a listed series using structural indicators such as to, in, on, and, or or, the initial marker must logically and grammatically distribute across every subsequent element in that list.

Questions and Discussion

• Identification of Faulty Parallelism:
  • Prompt: What is the underlying grammatical reason that causes sentences like "Kelly had to iron, do the washing, and shopping before her parents arrived" to exhibit faulty parallelism?
  • Listener Response: An inquiry was made as to whether the error was caused by improper comma placement in the list.
  • Explanation: While comma placement relates to sentence punctuation, the primary issue is the structural imbalance caused by failing to pair equivalent grammatical structures together.