FBLA Introduction To Business Communications Practice Test

The sentence "The receptionist must be able to answer the telephone, take direction, and to type documents" does not maintain parallel structure because it mixes two different grammatical forms. The first two items, "answer the telephone" and "take direction," are presented as infinitive phrases without the word "to," while the last item, "to type documents," introduces "to," creating inconsistency in the format. For a sentence to have parallel structure, all elements in the list should follow the same grammatical form, which this sentence fails to achieve. In contrast, the other sentences exhibit parallel structure by maintaining a consistent grammatical form throughout their lists. For example, the first option clearly lists two departments in the same format, the second showcases three gerunds, and the third maintains the same structure with the verbs "read," "review," and "report." Each example illustrates how maintaining parallelism enhances clarity and cohesion in writing.