Question

Which sentence is punctuated correctly?

The Statue of Liberty, which is mostly made of pure copper is a New York City landmark.

The Statue of Liberty which is mostly made of pure copper is a New York City landmark.

The Statue of Liberty, which is mostly made of pure copper, is a New York City landmark.

Answer 1

The last sentence with the two commas would be the correct answer. “which is mostly made of pure copper” is describing the Statue and should be separated.

When I have difficultly deciding where a comma goes, I’ll say the sentence out loud and I’ll place the commas in places where I would naturally pause. :)

Answer 2

Answer: The third option.

Explanation: In this sentence, the relative clause "which is mostly made of pure copper" is non-defining or non-essential, i.e., it adds information about the subject that could be removed from the sentence and the sentence would still make sense. Non-defining relative clauses always go between commas, parentheses or dashes.