Question

On his first day of working at the junior baseball camp, Sam taught the children how to catch a fly ball, throwing a fastball, and, in an effort to improve their scoring, how to steal a base.

What is the best way to write the underlined part of the sentence?
A.
how to throw a fastball, and, in effort to improve their scoring
B.
Leave as is
C.
how to throw a fastball, and, how to improve their scoring
D.
throwing a fastball, and, in effort improving their scoring

Answer 1

C

This version makes the list parallel: all three items are expressed as "how to ..." (how to catch, how to throw, how to improve). The original uses the gerund "throwing," which breaks parallel structure; A and D are ungrammatical, and B keeps the nonparallel phrasing.