Use of "and"

[SambitP981]

Hi Ron,

I am a unable to understand the diff in the usage of "and" in the below sentences:

1>Today there was unusually heavy traffic on the highway and I was late to work.
You said:
--> the point of this sentence is 'Here are two bad things that happened today.'
--> in this sentence, the traffic IS DEFINITELY NOT the reason why i was late.
Question 1:
if the above is true then what if if put a comma :
Today there was unusually heavy traffic on the highway, and I was late to work.

Question2:
What is the difference between the sentences "Today there was unusually heavy traffic on the highway and I was late to work." and "Today there was unusually heavy traffic on the highway, and I was late to work"?

2>You have explained an example of "COmma + and" [redacted]
1>stephanie told me that her son was sick and she would need an extra day to finish the project.
You said--> this sentence makes sense, with "her son was sick" and "she would need an extra day..." in parallel.
2>stephanie told me that her son was sick, and she would need an extra day to finish the project.
You said--> this sentence doesn't make sense.
the comma construction implies that "stephanie told me that her son was sick" and "she would need an extra day to finish the project" are separate and parallel.

Question 3:
in the above sentence arent both "stephanie told me that her son was sick" and " she would need an extra day to finish the project." about two SEPARATE things?
Shouldnt we use "thus" here?
stephanie told me that her son was sick and she thus would need an extra day to finish the project.

Question 4: Please help me to clear my confusion regarding "Comma+ and" and "Nocomma and" sentences.

[RonPurewal]

the presence or absence of punctuation is not tested on this exam. therefore, these considerations -- and any others like them -- are irrelevant here.

i've redacted the link -- please do not post links to other forums, regardless of whose posts you're linking to (= even if the linked post is written by a MPrep instructor, it's still against the rules to link to another forum).

also, that post was almost 8 years old.
please be aware -- any of our posts from that long ago will likely contain a great deal of discussion of minutiae and subtleties that are irrelevant to this exam (...or, worse, examples of the kinds of things GMAC tosses into the problems along with major/fundamental errors specifically to distract you).
that long ago, we didn't have as clear a picture of the exam's priorities as we do now.

just remember --
• you should be able to solve just about every SC problem with FUNDAMENTAL ERRORS and/or CLEAR, BLACK-AND-WHITE DISTINCTIONS in the answer choices.
• if you're looking at (i) trifling/subtle differences or (ii) obscure constructions you think you have to memorize -- STOP looking at those things, and LOOK for a MORE BASIC/FUNDAMENTAL/MAJOR issue SOMEWHERE ELSE in the problem. (these tiny little things are put into the problems specifically to distract you!).

[RonPurewal]

this thread is now locked, since the entirety of the thread is about a topic that is not actually tested on the GMAT exam.