Parallelism is a balance between two or more phrases or words. It's mostly focused on Past, present, or future tenses. It prevents the sentence from being awkward or grammatically incorrect.
Examples and explanations:
~ In the restroom, Tishena was brushing her hair, freshened her lip-gloss, and took deep breaths, trying to work up the courage to walk to her first speech class.
"Brushing" as one of the descriptive words didn't match with the others; "brushing" is present tense while "freshened" and "took" is past tense.
~ Celine looked behind the toilet, in the laundry basket, and checked under the bed, but she couldn't find her kitten.
There's nothing to support "..in the laundry basket,.." there's nothing to support that phrase.
~ Spiders that bite, hissing snakes, and squealing rodents fill the aquariums in Desmond's basement.
"spiders that bite" is a different context than the rest of the supporting details, it needs to match the rest of the supporting detail.
Corrections:
~ In the restroom, Tishena brushed her hair, freshened her lip-gloss, and took deep breaths, trying to work up the courage to walk to her first speech class.
~ Celine looked behind the toilet, peaked in the laundry basket, and checked under the bed, but she couldn't find her kitten.
~ Biting spiders, hissing snakes, and squealing rodents fill the aquarium in Desmond's basement.
Examples and explanations:
~ In the restroom, Tishena was brushing her hair, freshened her lip-gloss, and took deep breaths, trying to work up the courage to walk to her first speech class.
"Brushing" as one of the descriptive words didn't match with the others; "brushing" is present tense while "freshened" and "took" is past tense.
~ Celine looked behind the toilet, in the laundry basket, and checked under the bed, but she couldn't find her kitten.
There's nothing to support "..in the laundry basket,.." there's nothing to support that phrase.
~ Spiders that bite, hissing snakes, and squealing rodents fill the aquariums in Desmond's basement.
"spiders that bite" is a different context than the rest of the supporting details, it needs to match the rest of the supporting detail.
Corrections:
~ In the restroom, Tishena brushed her hair, freshened her lip-gloss, and took deep breaths, trying to work up the courage to walk to her first speech class.
~ Celine looked behind the toilet, peaked in the laundry basket, and checked under the bed, but she couldn't find her kitten.
~ Biting spiders, hissing snakes, and squealing rodents fill the aquarium in Desmond's basement.