Which option preserves parallel structure? "The manager's goals are to increase sales, to improve customer satisfaction, and to reduce costs."

Which option preserves parallel structure? "The manager's goals are to increase sales, to improve customer satisfaction, and to reduce costs."

• A. to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce costs
• B. increasing sales, improving customer satisfaction, and reducing costs
• C. to increase sales, to improve customer satisfaction, and to reduce costs
• D. increasing sales, to improve customer satisfaction, reducing costs

Answer: (C)

Keeping parallel structure means the items in a list after a linking verb share the same grammatical form. Here, the predicate is are followed by a list of goals, so each item should be expressed in the same form. Using infinitives with to for every item—to increase, to improve, and to reduce—makes the list uniform and easy to read, matching the structure after are. If one item drops the to (“to increase” vs. “improve,” “reduce”), the sequence loses its rhythm and becomes awkward and less clear. Using -ing forms like increasing, improving, and reducing shifts the pattern to gerunds, which also breaks the parallel setup with the initial infinitive form. So the version with all three items beginning with to—to increase sales, to improve customer satisfaction, and to reduce costs—preserves the parallel structure.

Keeping parallel structure means the items in a list after a linking verb share the same grammatical form. Here, the predicate is are followed by a list of goals, so each item should be expressed in the same form. Using infinitives with to for every item—to increase, to improve, and to reduce—makes the list uniform and easy to read, matching the structure after are. If one item drops the to (“to increase” vs. “improve,” “reduce”), the sequence loses its rhythm and becomes awkward and less clear. Using -ing forms like increasing, improving, and reducing shifts the pattern to gerunds, which also breaks the parallel setup with the initial infinitive form. So the version with all three items beginning with to—to increase sales, to improve customer satisfaction, and to reduce costs—preserves the parallel structure.