The standard SQL syntax for inserting a new row into a table is INSERT INTO tablename (column1, column2, ...) VALUES (value1, value2, ...);. Option B correctly follows this structure. It specifies the INSERT INTO command, the target table (Employee), the specific column to populate (Name), the VALUES keyword, and the corresponding value to be inserted ("John Doe"). Specifying the column name is a best practice, as it makes the statement independent of the column order in the table.

A. INSERT Employee { "John Doe" };

This syntax is incorrect. SQL uses parentheses () to enclose the list of values, not curly braces {}, and it is missing the mandatory INTO keyword.

C. INSERT INTO Employee ("John Doe");

This statement is missing the required VALUES keyword, which must precede the list of values being inserted into the table.

D. INSERT Employee (Name) Values ("John Doe");

This statement is missing the INTO keyword. While some database systems treat INTO as optional, it is part of the ANSI SQL standard syntax and is required for portability and clarity.

1. PostgreSQL 16 Documentation, SQL Commands, INSERT. The official documentation specifies the syntax as INSERT INTO tablename [ ( columnname [, ...] ) ] VALUES ( { expression | DEFAULT } [, ...] ). This confirms that INTO and VALUES are required keywords.

(Source: PostgreSQL Official Documentation, Chapter: "SQL Commands", Section: "INSERT")

2. Ramakrishnan, R., & Gehrke, J. (2003). Database Management Systems (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill. In Chapter 5, "SQL: Queries, Constraints, Triggers," the basic form for insertion is defined as: INSERT INTO tablename (columnlist) VALUES (valuelist). This is a standard academic textbook for database courses.

(Source: Page 157, Section 5.2.4, "INSERT Statement")

3. Stanford University, CS 145 Introduction to Databases, Course Notes on SQL. The notes on Data Manipulation Language (DML) present the syntax for insertion as INSERT INTO R(A1, ..., An) VALUES (v1, ..., vn);, reinforcing the structure used in the correct answer.

(Source: Stanford InfoLab, SQL DML Notes)