Thelonious Monk, who was a jazz pianist and composer, produced a body

This is one of my favorites, just because I see a lot of errors on it – but it’s actually really straightforward, and is easy to solve if you follow a couple of simple rules. And that doesn’t happen as often as we’d like on GMAT SC, unfortunately.


OK, the thing that should jump out at us is the word “both.” In this case, “both” is paired with the word “and” – and this is a very strict parallelism “trigger”. The word “both” and the word “and” must be followed by two parallel elements.

And in this case, we don’t have those parallel elements: “…both rooted… and Duke Ellington…” Nope: “rooted” is an adjective in this situation, and “Duke Ellington” definitely is not. So we can eliminate (A).

(And for anybody who was paying extremely close attention in our YouTube webinar on parallelism and meaning: when I mentioned “special parallel triggers”, this both/and construction is one of the most important examples I had in mind.)


I’m OK with the use of “that” here: “that was rooted” just modifies the “body of work.” You could probably argue that the words “that was” aren’t strictly necessary, but they also aren’t doing any harm at all.

The more important thing is the parallelism again: “…both in the stride-piano tradition… and Duke Ellington…”

Nope, that’s definitely not parallel, either. (B) is out.


Hm, no more “both”! That’s cool. Now the parallelism isn’t a problem at all: Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington are parallel to each other in the non-underlined portion.

But now there’s a more subtle problem: this thing isn’t a legitimate sentence anymore, because the presumed subject of the sentence (“Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk”) never actually “performs” a main verb. I think we can agree that the part beginning with “who” is just modifying Thelonious Monk, so let’s strip that out for just a moment to see what we have: “Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk,… yet in many ways he stood apart from the mainstream jazz repertory.”

Huh? That makes no sense. Basically, the sentence is structured as a noun, followed by a modifier, followed by a dependent clause. That’s not a sentence. So (C) is out.


As in (C), we don’t have any parallelism issues here, since “both” has been removed. But unlike (C), (D) is actually a real sentence, since it starts with a nice, independent clause: “…Thelonious Monk produced a body of work…”

So let’s keep (D).


And we’re right back to the same parallelism problem as in (B): “…both in the stride-piano tradition… and Duke Ellington…” That’s just plain wrong, and we’re left with (D) as the correct answer.
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Because we use idiom "both X and Y" too often, so when we see the idiom we will pick options having this idiom intuitively. GMAT, however, prefers standard idioms. In this question,
"both X and Y" must be used precisely, otherwise it's going wrong.

Note: Both X and Y <== X and Y MUST be parallel in meaning and grammar.
OG questions seem to be easy, but they have more sophisticated traps than we thought.

a) Thelonious Monk, who was a jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work both rooted
Wrong. Parallelism problem: both rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington,
- "rooted" is verb, "Duke Ellington" is noun <-- cannot parallel.

b) Thelonious Monk, the jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work that was rooted both
Wrong. Parallelism problem: rooted both in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington,
- The stride-piano tradition AND Duke Ellington are not parallel.

c) Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, who produced a body of work rooted
Wrong. Modifier problem. The clause "who....." has a comma before it. Technically, the clause is NON-essential. It means we can omit the clause without any meaning change. But that's wrong. The clause is ESSENTIAL. We can't omit it.

d) Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work that was rooted
Correct. parallelism: rooted in the stride-piano tradition of X and Y.

e) Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk produced a body of work rooted both
Wrong. Parallelism problem: rooted both in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington,
- The stride-piano tradition AND Duke Ellington are not parallel.

Hope it helps.

The difference in meaning is so subtle that I wouldn't pay much attention to it.

If I write, "Michael Jordan, the legendary Chicago Bull, loves to give his real name when he orders pizza," I'm offering "the legendary Chicago Bull" as important identifying information. In a sense, I'm asking the reader, "Don't you know Michael Jordan? He's the legendary Bull!"

If I write, "Michael Jordan, a legendary Chicago Bull," I'm suggesting that "a legendary Bull" is incidental background info. Jordan was lots of things, a legendary Bull among them.  

So, in this question, the writer is implying that "the jazz pianist" is crucial identifying info for Thelonious Monk.

Would I be comfortable using that distinction as a decision point? Probably not. The important thing is to recognize that it isn't an error.

I hope that clears things up!
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that Thelonious Monk produced a body of work that was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of both Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington, yet in many ways, he stood apart from the mainstream jazz repertory.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Parallelism + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• “both A and B" or "A as well as B" are the correct usages; A and B must be parallel and comparable.

A: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “both rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington”; the construction of this phrase illogically implies that Thelonious Monk's body of work was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith, and Thelonious Monk's work was also Duke Ellington; the intended meaning is that Thelonious Monk's body of work was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of both Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between A (“influenced by…Horrace”) and B (“Virgil”) in the idiomatic construction “both A and B; please remember, “both A and B" or "A as well as B" are the correct usages; A and B must be parallel and comparable.

B: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “both the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that Thelonious Monk's body of work was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith, and was also rooted in Duke Ellington; the intended meaning is that Thelonious Monk's body of work was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of both Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington. Further, Option B places the needlessly wordy modifying phrase "the jazz pianist and composer" between two commas, rendering itself awkward, needlessly wordy, and needlessly indirect.

C: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as “produced”, “rooted”, and “stood apart” are all parts of modifying phrases, there is no active verb to act upon the subject “Thelonious Monk”.

D: Correct. This answer choice acts upon an independent subject “Thelonious Monk” with the active verb “produced” to form a complete thought, leading to a complete sentence. Further, Option D uses the phrase “rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington”, conveying the intended meaning – that Thelonious Monk's body of work was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of both Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington. Additionally, Option D avoids the idiomatic error seen in Option A, as it does not employ the “both A and B” idiomatic construction. Further, Option D is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

E: This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “both the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington”; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that Thelonious Monk's body of work was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith, and was also rooted in Duke Ellington; the intended meaning is that Thelonious Monk's body of work was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of both Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington.

Hence, D is the best answer choice.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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both is not needed, Monk's work is rooted in only the stride-piano tradition, thus eliminate A, B and E.


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

hence, D is the answer.

Going to try this by elimination. The first thing to look out here is the keyword for idiom "both". "both A and B" is the correct idiom. This eliminates A because of idiom error. In fact I get the feeling the the usage of 'both' is incorrect altogether here, since with 'both A and B' , A and B need to be at least somewhat parallel. In this case they are not. Thus eliminate B and E.

C just doesnt read correctly for me. Consider this :
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.

The 'he' is pretty ambiguous here.

Thus I will go with D.

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) same
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

"rooted both" and "both rooted" : not required. The sentence means that the roots of the work are in the tradition of Willie and Duke Ellington.

Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington : here [highlight]and[/highlight] is used for the composers [highlight]not the roots[/highlight]

The sentence means that the work is rooted in the tradition of WS and DE.

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

C : ambiguous who
Hence D.

Both x and y
Both in x and in y
Both at X and at Y is correct. Both on X or on Y is correct.
Both should always have parallel forms associated to it.

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

In this both is not required at all
Hence A,B and E are out
that gives us C and D
C somehow does not sound right it suggest as if Thelonious Monk was rooted and not the work
Hence answer should D

The problem in A is the unnecessary intrusion of the word ‘both’; you can not say, 'a body of work" and then ‘both’ ‘‘Both’ has no plural referent.

In B and E, ‘both’ is misleading because there are no two traditions. There is only one tradition, i.e. the stride piano tradition.
In C there are two subjects to the main clause namely, Thelonious Monk and he. The second subject ‘he’ is redundant.
D is the correct choice with a proper contrasting and coordinating conjunction 'yet' that joins the two arms of this compound sentence and with the nosey word ‘both’ having been dropped
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The usage of "who" in choice C is wrong.

Take a run at this simplified example...

Tiger Woods, who is a famous golfer, endorses Nike, but he wears Reebok. [Correct]

Tiger Woods, who is a famous golfer that endorses Nike, but he wears Reebok. [Incorrect]

Why? --- The noun Tiger Woods does not have an accompanying verb. It is incomplete.

Choice C can be corrected as follows:

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

As you can see -- [Noun], [WHO]......., [Verb] + Modifier, [Coordinating Conjunction] + [Independent Clause]
[Monk], [WHO]......., [was] + traditional jazz.. , [YET] [He stood apart from the...]

The idiom both..and is deceptively used here. All options except C and D use the word both incorrectly here. C is a fragment, not a complete sentence. Hence the right answer is D.

I think we should take note an important issue here. The word ‘both’ is the spoilsport in the original text. What does ‘both’ refer to? When we say both, we mean both x and Y. However, there is only one factor here that ------ Monk produced a body of work rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington. Note that sibular phrase ‘a body of work’. So using ‘both’ before rooted has no relevance.

2. Can ‘rooted both’ be right? If there are two traditions in the context, it is understandable. However, here is only one tradition i.e. ‘the stride-piano tradition’ which belongs to the two gentlemen noted there.

Therefore, all choices using both in any of the contexts are wrong here. This leaves us only with C and D. Between them, C is an oitright fragment because of the intrusion of the pronoun “who”. Hence D.

3. A note on whether you really have to say ‘was rooted”. Here ‘a body of work rooted’ does not mean that the verb rooted is in active voice. It is actually a past participle, essentially conveying a passive voice such as ‘is rooted/ are rooted/ was rooted / were rooted etc’ depending on the context. Hence, the voice of the verb is out of scope here. In fact, D will still be right answer, even if you drop, the auxiliary verb ‘was’ before rooted.
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First, you must know that "both....and...." is a idiom, and it requires parallelism.
What does this mean? That the elements inside that idiom must have the same gramatical structure.
In other words: "both (noun) and (noun)"
"both (adjective) and (adjective)"
etc.

In this case, notice that after "and" there is a noun (Duke Ellington). So, the structure must be "both (noun) and (noun)".
Notice that in all the choices in which there is "both...and...", there is not parallelism in the elements. A, B, and E out.
C creates a fragment sentence "Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk" is a subject that doesn't have a verb, because after "yet" there is a new and independent clause. D is the answer.

I suggest to read the MGMAT SC book; it provides you a lot of useful concepts.

Hope it helps.

Which one of the following is right ??
a. Theo Mark, the jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work that was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of will smith and duke.
b. Jazz pianist and composer Theo Mark produced a body of work that was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of will smith and duke.

Regards,
Smruti

Hi Smruti,

You have changed the original Official question , nonetheless this is a good question to learn from.

If you have a noun prefaced by expression that is NOT preceded by an article 'THE/AN/A' then you do not need a comma this is the case in choice
Jazz pianist and composer Theo Mark produced a body of work that was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of will smith and duke.

If it said 'The/A jazz pianist and composer , Theo Mark (comma is needed because article is used ) or
if it said Innovative and Creative, Theo mark.. (comma needed because Noun preceded by adjective)

BTW the reason for elimination of choice [a] in the official question was a //m issue ;there is nothing wrong with the sentence structure
Theo Mark, the jazz pianist and composer, produced a body of work that was rooted in the stride-piano tradition of will smith and duke.
Noun, modifier, rest of the clause---is a OK structure


For clarity the original question is

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) same as above
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

OA

If you use "BOTH" the sentence structure would have to be:
"that was rooted both in X....and ...in Y"

We have:
"that was rooted both in [the stride-piano tradition of these guys], yet in many ways.."

WHERE is Y?

Note the "and" between "Willie and Duke Ellington" isn't part of the same structure. You would need the word "IN" or some other prepositional phrase like "both IN X and ON Y"---simply have the word "and" without the correct structure is NOT what we want.

SO there is no X&Y consistency here so it's no good. Specifically, the word "BOTH" is no good.

There's nothing wrong with "the jazz pianist and composer" - it's just that if you see other answer choices that say the same exact thing but in fewer words, then you want the other guy. "THE jazz pianist and composer" can be simplified to "Jazz pianist and composer" without sacrificing any meaning.

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.

1) The use of the relative pronoun is not correct. 2) The current placement of "both" suggests that the work should be rooted in something else in addition to the tradition. Eliminate A, B, E, and C (for the same modifier error).

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

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

Although the OG 16 mentions D as the correct answer, i would like to know the use of comma ,which makes b as the right choice in my assumptions.
Much guidance needed here.

this question tests you on parallelism -

Note that this correlative conjunction - Both X and Y - requires X and Y to be perfectly parallel.

Let us look at the answer options -

A - "both rooted in ...and Duke Ellington" - these two things are not in parallel.

B - "both in the stride piano ... and Duke Ellington" - these two things are not in parallel.

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"

Note that "yet" is used as co-ordinating conjunction here. Hence, two things that it contrasts must be parallel. Also, note that the portion in blue is a modifier.

"in many ways he stood apart ..." - a clause - is contrasted with "Jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk" - a phrase.
Hence, incorrect.

D - Correct answer. Note that we are not using the correlative conjunction both X and Y.

"... rooted in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington" - these two things are in parallel.

E - "both in the stride-piano tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington"
these two things are not in parallel.
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