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08 Jun 2022, 12:46
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tarun001
Hello, tarun001. I would not use commas as a basis for elimination, and in general, if a proper noun precedes the appositive that modifies it, the appositive will have commas around it, whether it starts with a or the. For instance, I could start a sentence,
George Bush, the late president, ...
Now, since there were two former U.S. presidents with the name George Bush (H.W. and W., sequentially), the appositive is crucial to understanding which one I mean to write about. But maybe I started the sentence thinking to write about the senior Bush when I realized that I needed to clarify which one the sentence was going to discuss. There is no need to transpose the proper noun and the appositive to adhere to some made-up rule about non-essential information. The sentence can work either way.
I have not hidden my sentiments about the question on the whole. I think it takes some liberties we would not expect to see on the actual exam. But I think (A), (C), and (D) all have more serious errors that warrant studying (specifically, as pilots and both saving). Take what you can from the question and move on. It is okay to mark concerns as doubts, but do not make eliminations unless you are next to certain something is wrong.
Thank you for following up.
- Andrew
08 Jun 2022, 19:38
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tarun001
Hi tarun001,
The phrase Atul Gawande is already very specific. That is, there's no need for us to be even more specific.
Here's another example:
1. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, was...
This is the same structure (the name of a person, followed by some information about that person). We should not switch to trying to further define Jawaharlal Nehru:
2. Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister of independent India was...
More generally, I don't think defining noun phrases in apposition (those without commas) are very common, so we're not too likely to encounter something like "Their son Mayur was...". I don't have any data to back this up though, and it'd be great to see more opinions on this.
08 Jun 2022, 21:54
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tarun001
When we say 'essential,' we mean something that removes ambiguity in the context. When we give the name of a person, it usually identifies the person uniquely so we need nothing else.
All modifiers add to the meaning of the sentence but that doesn't make them essential. 'Essential' is the one that removes ambiguity.
My brother is coming to visit me.
(Ambiguous if I have more than one brothers)
My brother Jack is coming to visit me.
Jack is an essential appositive. So no commas. Tells us which brother. Uniquely identifies the brother.
Jack is coming to visit me.
No ambiguity
Jack, my brother, is coming to visit me.
'my brother' is a non essential appositive. Adds to the sentence but is not essential.
My brother, Jack is coming to visit me.
Again, 'my brother' is the non essential appositive. Note that 'Jack' is not the appositive. There is a comma between 'my brother' and Jack but none between Jack and 'is.'
My only brother, Jack, is coming to visit me.
'Jack' is a non essential appositive now. It tells us what the name of the subject is as an aside. 'My only brother' is enough to uniquely identify him.
When we say 'Atul Gawande' in (B), ambiguity is over. If we rename him, it will be with a non essential appositive and will need commas.
