hard · Enhanced ACT english
The conductor, who had rehearsed the ensemble for months, insisted that the cellists—the section he trusted least—play the passage twice.
The writer wants the punctuation around "the section he trusted least" to mark a parenthetical aside without weakening the sentence's higher-level structure. Given that the sentence already uses paired commas to set off the relative clause "who had rehearsed the ensemble for months," which choice of punctuation around the aside is best, and why?
- Commas, because an appositive that renames a noun is always conventionally framed by commas no matter what other punctuation appears nearby
- Dashes, because they establish a stronger level of separation that keeps the aside from visually colliding with the earlier comma-set relative clause.
- Parentheses, because an incidental aside should always be marked using whatever punctuation signals the very lowest level of importance in the sentence
- Commas, because the aside here is short enough already that dashes would overstate the interruption and disrupt the sentence's otherwise even, measured tone
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