How to use the “not only . . . but also” construction?

The “not only X but also Y” correlative conjunction gives copyeditors no end of headaches. The problem commonly encountered with it is that X and Y are supposed to be grammatically parallel, but frequently people mess this up, so it doesn’t read right. So copyeditors are forced to recast the sentence.

In the examples below, I will set the two things which “not only . . . but also” is governing — and which are therefore supposed to be parallel — in bold face.

For example, this would be wrong:

He not only ate shrimp but also cocktail sauce, too. [WRONG]

That doesn’t work because ate is a verb while cocktail sauce is a noun. Instead that should be written as:

He ate not only shrimp but also cocktail sauce, too. [RIGHT]

If you want to alternate on the verb, then one might try this:

He not only ate shrimp but also vomited it, too. [RIGHT, but ick!]

Here’s another wrong example:

I come not only to bury Caesar, but Brutus and Cassius as well. [WRONG]

That’s wrong because “to bury” ≠ “Brutus and Cassius”. They aren’t parallel. That should instead be one of:

I come not only to bury Caesar, but also to praise him. [RIGHT]

I come to not only bury Caesar, but also praise him. [RIGHT]

I come to bury not only Caesar, but also Brutus and Cassius as well. [RIGHT]

Your sentence, however, seems to run afoul of none of these problems, because you are correctly using parallel grammatical pieces in both halves.

Perhaps you are looking for the "in general/in particular" phraseology. It is a balanced sentence-construct of a complementary nature, such that the general truth is on one side of the sentence and the particular truth is on the other side. In other words,

On the one hand, _____ is true in general, but ____is also true in particular.

For example,

It is important not only to know the truth in general, but also to speak the truth in particular.

Or, in different (and fewer) words but with the same thought, more or less:

It is important not only to know the truth but to speak the truth.

Or,

It is important not only to brush your teeth, but also to floss between your teeth.

Again, in fewer words,

It is important not only to brush but also to floss.

And now, for something completely different:

"It is good to stand rather than walk, and to sit rather than stand, but best of all is to lie down."