Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap,” a title that has appeared in hundreds of articles about him since the 1990s. Scott-Heron himself resisted the godfather ______blank feeling that it didn’t encapsulate his devotion to the broader African American blues music tradition as well as “bluesologist,” the moniker he preferred.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Choice C is the best answer. The convention being tested is punctuation use between a main clause and two supplementary elements. In this choice, the commas after “nickname” and “however” are correctly used to separate the supplementary adverb “however” from the main clause (“Scott-Heron…nickname”) on one side and the supplementary participial phrase (“feeling…bluesologist”) on the other.
Choice A is incorrect because it fails to mark the boundary between the supplementary adverb “however” and the supplementary phrase (“feeling…bluesologist”). Choice B is incorrect because a semicolon can’t be used in this way to join the supplementary adverb “however” and the supplementary phrase (“feeling…bluesologist”). Choice D is incorrect because a semicolon can’t be used in this way to join the main clause (“Scott-Heron…nickname”) and the supplementary word and phrase (“however” and “feeling…bluesologist”). Moreover, placing the semicolon after “nickname” illogically signals that the following information (Scott-Heron’s feeling that the nickname didn’t encapsulate his devotion to the blues tradition) is contrary to the information in the previous clause (Scott-Heron’s resistance to the nickname).
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