series

Definition:

A list of three or more items, usually arranged in parallel form. See also:

• Writing With Lists
• Composing Descriptive Lists
• Ian Frazier's List of Reasons in "Great Plains"
• Lists and Anaphora in Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There"
• Joyce Johnson's New York in the 1950s: List Structures
• Lists and Anaphora in Nikki Giovanni's "View of Home"

Etymology:

From the Latin, "to join"

Examples and Observations:

• "I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or a sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a humble-bee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the northstar, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house."
  (Henry David Thoreau, Walden)



• "With their repetitions, their strong rhythmic qualities--lists are often the most musical section of a piece of prose, as though the writer suddenly broke into song."
  (Susan Neville, "Stuff: Some Random Thoughts on Lists," AWP Feb. 1998)



• "The sandwiches were stuffed with alfalfa sprouts and grated cheese, impaled with toothpicks with red, blue, and green cellophane ribbons on them, and there were two large, perfect, crunchy garlic pickles on the side. And a couple of cartons of strawberry Yoplait, two tubs of fruit salad with fresh whipped cream and little wooden spoons, and two large cardboard cups of aromatic, steaming, fresh black coffee."
  (Thom Jones, Cold Snap)



• "In an unenumerated series, place the longest element last."
  (Douglas Southall Freeman, quoted by James Kilpatrick)



• "Do not use etc. at the end of a list or series introduced by the phrase such as or for example--those phrases already indicate items of the same category that are not named."
  (Gerald J. Alred et al., The Business Writer's Handbook, Macmillan, 2003)

Pronunciation: SEER-eez

Also Known As: list, catalog