Not only is often misplaced in a sentence. For example:
WRONG: The directory covers not only general information but also provides details on names,
addresses and a wide variety of other relevant data.
Parallel structure is lacking here, as you can see when the sentence is illustrated as follows:
The directory covers
not only general information
but also provides details on
names, addresses and a wide variety
of other relevant data.
The problem is that information (a noun) is not parallel to provides (a verb), so the reader is confused. To correct this problem, relocate
not only as follows:
RIGHT: The directory not only covers general information but also provides details on names,
addresses and a wide variety of other relevant data.
The corrected sentence could be illustrated as follows:
The directory
not only covers general information
but also provides details on names,
addresses and a wide variety
of other relevant data.
Now covers and provides are parallel—they're both
verbs—so the reader is no longer confused. (By the way,
names, addresses and variety are already parallel to one another, because they are all nouns, even though
variety is preceded by the adjective wide and followed by
the prepositional phrase of other relevant data.)
Even if you were never taught how to diagram sentences, it's often helpful to "map out" muddy sentences, as in the above example, to more easily identify and correct any problems.
When speaking, most of us tend to misplace the word only in a sentence. We might say, for example, "I
only want to go to the store if you go with me" instead of correctly saying, "I want to go to the store
only if you go with me." In writing, we should place the word
only more carefully, so the meaning of the sentence cannot be
mistaken by readers. Consider, for example, how the unique placement of only
in each of the following sentences results in four different meanings:
I only wanted to ride the roller coaster once more. [I merely wanted to ride the roller coaster once more.]
I wanted to ride only the roller coaster once more. [I didn't want to ride any other ride.]
I wanted to ride the only roller coaster once more. [Only one roller coaster existed, and I wanted to ride it.]
I wanted to ride the roller coaster only once more. [I didn't want to ride it two or three times more.]
