Is there a parallelism issue with the following sentence?
Prize money will be given to the best dressed, the worst dressed, and the most “interesting” garment.
I'd appreciate your help.
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Yes, there is a problem. The final item should be and the most "interestingly" dressed.– Jason BassfordCommented Jun 19, 2018 at 16:10
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As stated, the sentence suggests that the prize money will go to the garments rather than their wearers. To avoid this suggestion, you might write: Prize money will be given to the best dressed, the worst dressed and the most interestingly dressed party-goers, (guests, entrants or whatever). Or, To guests in the best dressed, worst dressed and most interestingly dressed categories. If you want to keep garments, you might say that the money will be awarded for.– Ronald SoleCommented Jun 19, 2018 at 21:51
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@RonaldSole Are you saying that the OP sentence would be OK if the preposition "to" is replaced by "for"? Why? The best-dressed and the worst-dressed refer to people, whereas the most interesting garment refers to a garment. Would it be natural to put them together?– ApollyonCommented Jun 19, 2018 at 22:27
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@Apollyon Perfectly true. I should have spotted that myself!– Ronald SoleCommented Jun 19, 2018 at 23:28
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1 Answer
Is there a parallelism issue with the following sentence?
The sentence sounds like you're giving away 3 prizes. If you meant this, your sentence works.
and the most “interesting” garment.
While if analyzed closely this does literally mean you're giving money to the garment, since you mention "dressed" twice, you establish a pattern and it's obvious you mean "one who is wearing the most interesting garment."
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If your account works, then you should expect "The best dressed will receive $500, the worst dressed $200, and the most interesting garment $150" to be correct. But is that really the case?– ApollyonCommented Jun 20, 2018 at 22:19