[Grammar] Parallel mistake?

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englishteacher79

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Is there any mistake in this sentence:

"I'll be teaching participants how to overcome this problem and techniques for X.

The meaning is I'll be teaching participants this (how to overcome this problem) and that (techniques for X).

I understand it sounds a bit weird because one Noun Phrase is "how to..." while the other is "techniques". Would this be considered wrong grammatically? Thanks.
 
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MikeNewYork

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Yes. It is very clumsy.
 

BobK

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I‘m a bit confused. Judging from the subject line, we can be sure the OP knows the word "parallelism"; and judging from the question we know that s/he knows what it applies to. So the question seems to be "Does parallelism [really] matter?" The answer‘s Yes.

b
 
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Tarheel

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We don't overcome problems. We solve them. Perhaps:


I'll be teaching participants how to solve this problem and I'll be teaching them specific techniques for doing so.
:)
 

Raymott

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I don't see a problem if the context is right.

"This seminar is about logical errors in coding. I'll be teaching participants how to overcome this problem and techniques for writing neater code generally."
"I'll be teaching participants Y and X" - where Y is "how to overcome this problem".
 

MikeNewYork

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There is still a problem with parallelism.
 

Barb_D

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I see no problem here. The "how to overcome/solve" acts as a noun phrase.

I am a stickler for parallelism and I see two noun phrases. It would be improved if the second part can be made into another "how to" phrase, though.
 

BobK

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I've come round to Barb's view (both acceptability and improvability [which Firefox thinks is a spelling mistake - but you get the gist :)] ).

b
 

MikeNewYork

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A lack of parallelism is not necessarily a problem with parallelism.

It is for me.

I taught her all the ins and outs of running a clothing store and sewing.
 

Tarheel

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Englishteacher79, you don't need to (and shouldn't capitalize noun phrase.

Say:

I'll be teaching participants how to solve this problem and techniques for doing so.​
 
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