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Is Comma necessary to join independent clauses

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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:36 am
Hi All,

Can someone please tell is it necessary to use comma in GMAT to join independent clauses. For e.g. can someone please tell which of the following two(or both) are acceptable usages in GMAT ?

A) Earl walked to school, AND he later ate his lunch.( There is a comma)
B) Earl walked to school AND he later ate his lunch. ( There is "no" comma)

Thanks
Mohit
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by scoobydooby » Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:45 am
i think we need a comma and a conjunction to join independant clauses.

A would be correct.
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:09 am
Thanks Scooby...

Can this be the answer of the question that was this discussed in the following thread...since there is no comma....between two independent clauses.....so they cannot be joined....

https://www.beatthegmat.com/gene-splice- ... tml#169290

Kindly share your thoughts....
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by scoobydooby » Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:27 am
yes, we can use this concept. because the sentence does not have a comma+and, the sentence is not meant to join two independant clauses (subject+verb). so we should not have the "and it might".

the microbes might escape and kill=> the escape exposes the threat to kill. "escape" and "kill" are part of the same idea.
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:40 am
scoobydooby wrote:yes, we can use this concept. because the sentence does not have a comma+and, the sentence is not meant to join two independant clauses (subject+verb). so we should not have the "and it might".

the microbes might escape and kill=> the escape exposes the threat to kill. "escape" and "kill" are part of the same idea.
Hi scooby,

if comma would have been there...would it still be wrong to join two independent clauses... ?

Thanks
Mohit
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by scoobydooby » Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:49 am
i guess so. notice that the sentence uses "it was feared that", the fear stems from the possibility of the microbes escaping and killing humans. so i guess escape and kill together should be used together to express the complete idea.
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:18 am
scoobydooby wrote:i think we need a comma and a conjunction to join independant clauses.

A would be correct.
Just now got the same in OG too....Q135 of OG-10 says so....

OG says, we need to have a comma before conjunctor to join independent clause.

Thanks Scooby.
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by pandeyvineet24 » Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:39 pm
B) Earl walked to school AND he later ate his lunch.

i think the below sentence would have been correct though if it was the following

B) Earl walked to school AND later ate his lunch ("HE" removed).
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