Non-Parallel Construction

Even important publications like NYT or WSJ are not immune to generating weak prose, constructed with non-parallel clauses.
Here is one from New York Times (June 7, 2008):
“The hunger strike is meant to pressure federal officials, and comes as Congress is debating an expansion of the guest worker program…”
There’s nothing “wrong” with this sentence except a passive-voice clause is followed by an active-voice one.
This is how I’d edit it:
“The hunger strike aims to put pressure on the federal officials, and comes as Congress is debating an expansion of the guest worker program…”

1 Comment

  1. Anonymous on June 25, 2008 at 10:06 pm

    Perhaps the author wanted to emphasize the hunger strike in order to clarify that it was especially the hunger strike and not something else within the context of the sentence that was meant to pressure congress?

    -Cemisgezek Jim