Either it works, or it doesn't

I found an interesting thing called parallelism. I wasn't sure what it refered to so I went ahead and checked it out. Parallelism is actually quite a detailed little grammar function, a bit too complicated to put into a simplified rule, but it entales making sentences cohesive by using like language throughout a sentence that has several different parts. (Ick...that was messy.) Anyway, let me show an example or two.

Wrong...
A time not for words, but action
Right...
A time not for words, but for action

Using the word for each time makes it sound better.

Wrong...
The French, the Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese
Right...
The French, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Portuguese

You wouldn't use the in front of just some of the list but each word.

Wrong...
In spring, summer, or in winter
Right...
In spring, summer, or winter (or) In spring, in summer, or in winter

Again, you wouldn't use in before some of the list, either each word or just the first.

There are other ways to bring sentences together for more cohesiveness by just rearranging them.
Wrong...
It was both a long ceremony and very tedious.
Right...
The ceremony was both long and tedious.

Check out a bunch more at:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/parallelism.htm