Which sentence contains no noticeable punctuation errors?

• A. Malcolm X, a human rights activist and minister in America during the 1950s and 1960s, changed his last name from Little to X in 1952.
• B. Malcolm X, a human rights activist and minister in America during the 1950s and 1960s changed his last name from Little to X in 1952.
• C. Malcolm X, a human rights activist and minister in America during the 1950s and 1960s, changed his last name from Little to X in 1952.
• D. Malcolm X a human rights activist and minister in America during the 1950s and 1960s, changed his last name from Little to X in 1952.

Answer: (C)

Nonessential appositive information should be set off with commas. The phrase describing Malcolm X as “a human rights activist and minister in America during the 1950s and 1960s” adds extra detail but isn’t needed to identify him, so it should be enclosed by commas on both sides. That makes the sentence read smoothly and leaves the main action—Malcolm X changing his last name—clear.

This sentence correctly places a comma after Malcolm X and another after the descriptive phrase: Malcolm X, a human rights activist and minister in America during the 1950s and 1960s, changed his last name from Little to X in 1952.

Other options misplace or omit punctuation around the appositive. One has no comma after the descriptive phrase, which makes the appositive feel essential and clutters the sentence. Another skips the comma after the name, tying the descriptive phrase directly to the noun and causing parsing issues. The result in those cases is a reader-friendly disruption or ambiguity, whereas the chosen sentence preserves the intended, natural flow.