Which correctly uses commas to set off nonessential information in the sentence? A) A career in politics which was not his first career, ended up being the ticket to success for Abraham Lincoln. B) A career in politics; which was not his first career; ended up being the ticket to success for Abraham Lincoln. C) A career in politics, which was not his first career, ended up being the ticket to success for Abraham Lincoln. D) A career in politics; which was not his first career, ended up being the ticket to success for Abraham Lincoln.

C) A career in politics, which was not his first career, ended up being the ticket to success for Abraham Lincoln.

Explanation:

In the sentence shown in the question above, the information considered to be non-essential is "... which was not his first career ..." This statement is considered non-essential because it is not necessary for us to understand the context of the sentence and the message that must be passed. This type of information must always be accompanied by two commas, one at the beginning of the information and one at the end, as shown in option C.

It is not correct to use the symbol ";" in place of the comma, in this case, since this symbol should not be used to separate non-essential information.

Choice C is the correct answer.  

Explanation:

The question speaks to the subject of Essential and Non-essential clauses.

Recall that an adjective clause is a dependent clause that acts like an adjective in the sentence. Why? because it gives more information about a noun or pronoun in the sentence. It is dependent because by itself, it makes no sense.

Sometimes the information given by the adjective clause is essential. An essential adjective clause is one that is needed for the sentence to make sense. If you took it out, you would not know all the information that you need to know.

At other times, such as in the question,  the information given by the adjective clause is nonessential. A nonessential adjective clause is one that is not required to enable the comprehension of the sentence. In other words, the sentence still makes sense and you know everything you need to know even without the clause. So, you could take it out.

When a sentence has a nonessential adjective clause, the clause is set apart with commas. This shows that it is not essential.

Given the above, it is clear to see that from the sentence, 'which is not his first career' qualifies the opening clause 'A career in politics' but is not required to comprehend the whole sentence if removed.

E.g A career in politics ended up being the ticket to success for Abraham Lincoln.

So to correctly punctuate using a comma, we could separate the nonessential information as follows:

A career in politics, which was not his first career, ended up being the ticket to success for Abraham.

Cheers!