Toni Morrison, a novelist and essayist, _____ the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature when...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• Toni Morrison,
• a novelist and essayist,
• [?] the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
• when she received the honor in 1993.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

"Toni Morrison" - this is who the sentence is about.

"a novelist and essayist" - this is a quick descriptive note about Toni Morrison, set off by commas.

Now here's where we need to fill in the blank:
"Toni Morrison... [blank] the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature when she received the honor in 1993."

Let's look at our choices - they're all different forms of the verb "to be":

• were (plural, past)
• have been (plural, present perfect)
• was (singular, past)
• are (plural, present)

Now, what do we need here?

First, let's think about the subject:

• "Toni Morrison" is one person - singular
• So we need a singular verb form

Second, let's think about the time:

• "in 1993" tells us this happened in the past
• "when she received the honor" also confirms past tense
• So we need past tense

What do we notice? We need a verb that is both:

• Singular (to match "Toni Morrison")
• Past tense (to match "in 1993")

The correct answer is was - it's the only choice that is both singular and past tense.

The complete sentence tells us: Toni Morrison became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature back in 1993.

Grammar Concept Applied

Subject-Verb Agreement with Interrupting Modifiers

The verb in a sentence must match its subject in number (singular or plural), even when descriptive phrases separate them. Also, the verb tense must match the time frame indicated in the sentence.

The Pattern:

Step 1: Identify the true subject

• Subject: Toni Morrison (singular)
• Interrupting phrase: "a novelist and essayist" (set off by commas - ignore when determining agreement)

Step 2: Determine number

• One person = singular subject
• Needs singular verb

Step 3: Determine tense

• Time indicator: "in 1993"
• Context: "when she received" (past)
• Needs past tense verb

Step 4: Choose the verb that matches

• Singular + Past = was

How this applies to our question:
Even though "a novelist and essayist" comes between the subject "Toni Morrison" and the verb, this interrupting phrase doesn't change the fact that "Toni Morrison" is singular. We look past the commas to connect the subject with its verb: "Toni Morrison... was the first African American woman..." The time frame "in 1993" confirms we need past tense, making "was" (singular, past) the only correct choice.