<p>Which structure is correct?
1, I was a musician, a lawyer and a businessman.
2, I was a musician, lawyer and businessman.</p>
<p>Which one is correct? Someone in another thread said that the last two "a" are redundant, but I read on a grammar book that the "a" is essential in keeping the list parallel.</p>
<p>The first one is parallel, for sure. You are right, all prepositions must also abide by the parallel structure also. </p>
<p>As for the second one, I think is also right because the parallelism is starting from (musician, lawyer and businessman.)</p>
<p>In any case, if you are using “a” in the beginning, apply it to all other ones.</p>
<p>In any other case, never switch between using a prep. and not using it.</p>
<p>Keep it consistent throughout the sentence.</p>
<p>This was a question directly from an official SAT test. Which one do you suppose was the correct answer?</p>
<p>were both of them actual answers to a question: (if so, the question may be flawed),</p>
<p>But if I had to choose, I would choose the first one, cause its “more” parallel than the second because of the prepositions, (and also Silverturtle also said to use prep. :))</p>
<p>Both (1) and (2) are correct. For a long list (2) certainly reads better.</p>
<p>The general rule for prepositions and article that if the preposition or article (a, an, the) is the same for all items in the list you can either repeat it for each item, or use it with only with the first item.</p>