<p>"With the 1977 publication of "Song of Solomon," Toni Morrison [both received popular and critical acclaim].
Other choices: B) [received both popular and also]
C) [received popular as well as]</p>
<p>Why is C correct and the other ones with "both... and" format incorrect?</p>
<p>If it was “received both popular and critical”, it would be correct. I think the “also” here is redundant comparing to “as well as”.</p>
<p>The paired conjunctions “both … and” are correlative conjunctions. Other examples of correlative conjunctions include “either … or”, “not only … but also.”.</p>
<p>The elements connected by correlative conjunctions need to be balanced and parallel. That means they should be similar in length and in grammatical form.</p>
<p>In the sentence “With the 1977 publication of “Song of Solomon,” Toni Morrison both received popular and critical acclaim.” the conjunction pair both-and connect a verb (received) to an adjective-noun. This is incorrect usage.</p>
<p>You can repair this as jasonliupc point out.</p>
<p>A phrase such as “both received and gave” would also be correct usage; although this wouldn’t apply in the current situation.</p>