Sentence Correction

Hi anksm22,

There are two main parts (independent clauses) in this complex sentence, the first of which contains three main ideas, and the second of which contains two main ideas.

The first part of the sentence contains Barry Manilow's real name, his age, and lists a number of musicians he has played with:

Barry Manilow, whose legal name is Barry Alan Pincus, is a 70-year-old musician who has played with Sting, Elton John, and Bette Midler, among others

We need the "among others" found in answers A, B, and D because it correctly concludes that first part of the sentence, letting us know that the musicians listed are not the entirety of musicians Barry Manilow has played with, just some of them - i.e. there are others. That means we can eliminate answers C and E, which do not correctly conclude that part of the sentence.

Answer D can be eliminated because it contains "but also a," which sets up a contrast in the next part of the sentence with something in the first part of the sentence. There is no contrast. The sentence is just listing facts about Barry Manilow.

That leaves us with two similar answers, A and B. The difference between them is the comma and the semi-colon. Semi-colons are used to connect closely-related ideas when a style mark stronger than a comma is needed. The two parts of the sentence are closely related, closely enough that a comma will do. Eliminate B.

I hope this helps.

Ignore this SC! It is non-representative of official SCs on multiple levels.

To me "a genial man with a face and voice known around the world" seems like a misplaced modifier when placed at the end of the sentence in the original constructions.

Correct!

The sentence could have been written:
A genial man with a face and voice known around the world, Barry Manilow, whose legal name is Barry Alan Pincus, is a 70-year-old musician who has played with Sting, Elton John, and Bette Midler, among others.

Mechanics are OK here.
However, it still is non representative of correct answers in official material.
Why?
In any official SC, there is a core and there is a contextual information.
Core is a message that author wants to communicate to her audience.
Core is the single most important point in a sentence.
Core, thus, is required to be in the main clause and not in the modifier-- not even in the essential modifier at the cost of less imp. message in main clause.

Modifiers- essential or non essential- provide contextual information.
Essential and non essential modifiers have different degrees of preferences: They are not dealt with on equal footing.

A genial man with a face and voice known around the world, Barry Manilow, whose legal name is Barry Alan Pincus, is a 70-year-old musician who has played with Sting, Elton John, and Bette Midler, among others.

The way this sentence is written the core- message author wants to communicate- is
Barry Manilow is a 70-year-old musician.

Ask yourself, Is this supposed to be a core or what follows in the essential modifier supposed to be a core?

Analyze few SCs from official material that contain modifiers, strip modifiers, get to the core, analyze message in the core as well as in modifiers and then comeback and analyze this SC and reach the conclusion all by yourself.

Alternatively,
The sentence might essentially be seen as:
Barry Manilow, whose legal name is Barry Alan Pincus, is a 70-year-old musician and is among others a genial man with a face and voice known around the world.

and signals ll-ism.
llism has two aspects: one deals with mechanics, other with logic.
Here the mechanics is OK, logic,however, is not!

or,
Barry Manilow, whose legal name is Barry Alan Pincus, is a 70-year-old musician who has played with Sting, Elton John, and Bette Midler, and is among others a genial man with a face and voice known around the world.

Same issue!

Certain forums say that "a genial man with a face and voice known around the world" is an absolute phrase but there are others who disagree.

"a genial man with a face and voice known around the world" is not an absolute phrase.
It was, however, intended to be an appositive modifier.