The passage from the ACT QOTD includes the following sentence: She lined up the nose of the open
cockpit biplane on the runway’s center mark, she gave the engine full throttle, and took off into history.
The words “mark, she” are underlined. Is this an error with parallel structure (should the word “she” be included or not)?
Yes, it’s a parallel structure issue. If you include the “she” in the second clause, you would have to add it to the third one – which would not be incorrect but would be inelegant and kind of boring. Deleting the “she” after the “mark,” yields a pleasing direct sentence: “She lined up …, gave the engine full throttle, and took off into history.”
Thank you!