Question

What is the best way to punctuate the bolded portion of the sentence?

He wrote many scholarly essays about a variety of topics the teacher explained.

He wrote many scholarly essays about a variety of topics,
“He wrote many scholarly essays about a variety of topics,”
“He wrote many scholarly essays about a variety of topics”.
“He wrote many scholarly essays about a variety of topics”

Answer 1

The answer to the question would be “He wrote many scholarly essays about a variety of topics,” :D :D

Answer 2

The answer to your question would be that the best way to punctuate the bolded portion of the sentence is the following one: "He wrote many scholarly essays about a variety of topics,".

That is the right option because the statement is a quotation said by teacher and, as such, the comma shold be inside the quotation marks.