Question

The following question presents a sentence, part or all of which is underlined. Select the answer that produces the most effective sentence; your answer should make the sentence clear, exact, and free of grammatical error. It should also minimize awkwardness, ambiguity, and redundancy.

Thelonious Monk, who was a jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work both rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington, yet in many ways he stood apart from the mainstream jazz repertory.

• A. Thelonious Monk, who was a jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work both rooted
• B. Thelonious Monk, the jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work that was rooted both
• C. Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, who produced a body of work rooted
• D. Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work that was rooted
• E. Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work rooted both

Answer 1

The correct option is D Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work that was rooted

Let's go through the options and find out the correct answer. Options C,D and E are much preferable to options A and B. This is because in C, D and E the subject is right next to the verb which is much more preferable than the convoluted 'who was a jazz pianist...' or 'the jazz pianist and...' separating the subject and the verb. Now, focusing on the use of 'both', it must be kept in mind that when the idiom is used to say something like 'both P and Q', P and Q must be parallel to each other (in meaning and grammar). E is eliminated because, here, 'both' is used before a prepositional phrase and requires another prepositional phrase to make it parallel. So E is out as it lacks parallelism. 'Both' is supposed to compare the two artists (Willie Smith and Duke Ellington) influencing Monk which is why 'both' should be right before the artists' names- BOTH Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington. Since 'both' is not part of the underlined sentence, this is not possible. It's better to eliminate 'both'. This too supports the elimination of E as an option. C lacks the correct structure as 'who produced...' becomes an independent clause and the part after 'yet' is another independent clause with its own subject and verb ( he + stood). This leaves the first part of the sentence without a verb. Thus C is out. D is the only option that comes across as a sentence with correct parallelism and sound grammatical structure. D is the answer.