What does this question test?
This question tests your skills in establishing parallel lists. It also tests your expertise in spotting a fragment.
What does this sentence mean?
This sentence presents the characteristics of work of Thelonious Monk. He was a jazz pianist and a composer. His work was rooted in stride-piano tradition of Willie Smith and Duke Ellington. But in many ways he stood apart from the mainstream jazz repertory.
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What are the errors in the original sentence?
This sentence has parallelism error. The sentence uses idiom – both…and. When idiom “both…and” is used, what follows these words should be parallel entities. However, per the usage in this sentence, the elements are as follows:
- Both rooted in the stride piano tradition of Willie Smith
- And Duke Ellington.
Clearly, these two elements are not parallel since verb phrase cannot be parallel to a noun. The correct construction is as follows:
- Rooted in the stride piano tradition of
- Both Willie Smith
- And Duke Ellington.
Or without both…and idiom and only ‘and’
- Rooted in the stride piano tradition of
- Willie Smith
- And Duke Ellington.
Answer Choice Analysis:
Choice A: 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.Parallelism Error as noted above.
Choice B: Thelonious Monk, the jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work that was rooted both 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.Parallelism Error as noted in Choice A. The list per this sentence is as follows:
- Body of work that was rooted
- Both in the stride piano tradition of Willie Smith
- And Duke Ellington.
“in the stride piano…” is not parallel to “Duke Ellington”.
Choice C: Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, who produced a body of work 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.This sentence has a fragment. There is no verb for the subject Thelonious Monk.
Choice D: Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work that was 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.No errors
Choice E: Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work rooted both 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.Parallelism Error as in Choice B.
Thus, Choice D is the correct answer.
What are the key take-away messages?
- Markers such as “both..and” mark the presence of a list. The list should be parallel. That is in the expression Both X And Y, X and Y should be grammatically and logically parallel.
- All subjects must have verbs.
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