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while I've been prepping for the SAT using The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar Workbook by Erica L. Meltzer I encountered this question:

Sentence: Before a vaccine was finally discovered by an American scientist Jonas Salk in 1955, more than 80% of polio patient received help from the foundation

Question:

  1. NO CHANGE

  2. Scientist Jonas Salk,

  3. Scientist, Jonas Salk

4. Scientist, Jonas Salk, (right answer)

Comment: why isn't the right answer is B since we don't know who the scientist was so it's essential info, also we have before

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  • The test is meaningless with only the information provided. Is there more than one American scientist in the group being discussed? Is there more than one American scientist named Jonas Salk? There is also a certain level of intention that can only be determined by the author of the sentence. In many ways, the punctuation itself determines, by definition, if something is restrictive or not. Unless the person answering the question is the author, the answer is subjective. The only objective answer would be which is the more common interpretation. And, for that, there should be evidence.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Aug 4, 2019 at 19:48
  • Because an is there, you need the commas around the name.
    – Xanne
    Commented Aug 4, 2019 at 20:47
  • Note that whether it’s essential depends not on meaning or the importance of the information, but only the grammatical structure of the sentence.
    – Xanne
    Commented Aug 4, 2019 at 21:08
  • @Xanne The use of an does not necessarily make Jonas Salk nonrestrictive. It is possible (although unlikely) to still interpret the name as restrictive, in which case the commas should not be there.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Aug 5, 2019 at 1:51
  • My guess is that the multiple-choice options do not capitalize "Scientist," since doing so in the middle of the sentence at issue would be an error. As for why the test considers option 4 the correct answer, I suspect that the person who devised it is checking whether test takers know the standard punctuation treatment in U.S. writing for an appositive—in this case, a construction in which either the more specific "Jonas Salk" or the more general "an American scientist" could stand in for the five words "an American scientist Jonas Salk" without creating problems in coherence or syntax. ...
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Aug 5, 2019 at 6:25

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The point of the question is not to set history straight but to test one's understanding of parenthetical commas.

Each answer differs in the placement of commas so as to set off the name of the scientist for special consideration. If you imagine the sentence read out loud you can hear how the commas function as pauses in speech to describe secondary details within the text. This can help with comparing one answer to another.

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