Question

read the sentence.
noah who draws comic books in his free time wants to write a graphic novel.
which version of the sentence has correctly placed commas?

• noah, who draws comic books in his free time, wants to write a graphic novel.
• noah, who draws comic books, in his free time wants to write a graphic novel.
• noah who, draws comic books in his free time, wants to write a graphic novel.
• noah who draws comic books, in his free time, wants to write a graphic novel.

Explanation:

🆕 New Concept Discovered: Nonessential Clauses and Comma Usage
Setting off extra information with commas

Step 1: Identify the main clause and the extra information

The core message of the sentence is:
"Noah wants to write a graphic novel."

The phrase "who draws comic books in his free time" provides extra information about Noah. Because we already know his name ("Noah"), this descriptive phrase is nonessential (or non-restrictive) to identifying who he is.

Step 2: Apply the comma rule for nonessential clauses

Nonessential clauses must be set off from the rest of the sentence using commas at both the beginning and the end of the clause.

• Start of the clause: right after "Noah"
• End of the clause: right after "free time"

This gives us:
"Noah, who draws comic books in his free time, wants to write a graphic novel."

Step 3: Match with the given options

• Option 1: "Noah, who draws comic books in his free time, wants to write a graphic novel." (Correctly places commas before "who" and after "time")
• Option 2: "Noah, who draws comic books, in his free time wants..." (Incorrectly splits the nonessential clause)
• Option 3: "Noah who, draws comic books..." (Incorrectly places the comma after "who")
• Option 4: "Noah who draws comic books, in his free time, wants..." (Missing the opening comma after "Noah")

Answer:

Noah, who draws comic books in his free time, wants to write a graphic novel.