<p>Hi again, I have yet another writing question that I'm not sure that Barron's has addressed correctly:
Should we say:
Today's newspaper says that mathematics is far more popular among Japanese high school students than among American students
OR
Today's newspaper says that mathematics is far more popular among Japanese high school students than among American high school students
THANKS.
:)</p>
<p>The second one, because two independent things are being compared. The former implies nothing about the latter. You have to repeat “high school.”</p>
<p>Parallel structure is necessary only when the structures are dependent on one thing but independent of each other:</p>
<p>[Purdue</a> OWL](<a href=“Purdue OWL® - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University”>Purdue OWL® - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University)
All three of the structures are parallel, and describe what the coach told the players. They are described independently–i.e., they are divided by commas and are treated as independent structures–yet they are dependent on each other to be parallel, and dependent on the clause "the coach told the players . . . " to provide a grammatical extension.
These are 3 parallel structures that describe what Mary likes. Similarly, you might say, “Mary likes to hike, to swim, and to ride.” The structures are independent, but dependent on the verb “likes.” It is grammatical to say, “Mary likes to __<strong><em>.” Therefore, it is grammatical to say, “Mary likes to _</em></strong><em>, to _</em><strong><em>, and to </em></strong>.”</p>
<p>As you can see, the sentence “Today’s newspaper says that mathematics is far more popular among Japanese high school students than among American high school students” has nothing to do with parallelism. Compound nouns do not have to be parallel because they are both already nouns.</p>
<p>Crazy bandit quote: (I don’t know how to do the offiical quote thingy):
As you can see, the sentence “Today’s newspaper says that mathematics is far more popular among Japanese high school students than among American high school students” has nothing to do with parallelism. Compound nouns do not have to be parallel because they are both already nouns. </p>
<p>OK, according to Barron’s, the first one is correct (the one w/o the high school one) and the second one is incorrect due to parallelism error. So IDK which one is right/wrong. SO CONFOUNDED.</p>
<p>If I were you I would just avoid using Barron’s from now on, or just wait for someone else’s response to this question.</p>
<p>The first one is right because the comparison wanted is a comparison between the Japanese students that are only in high school and the American students as a whole.</p>
<p>That is what I understood :)</p>