Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as the oth

Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as the other Indian tribes, they should unite against the white settlers rather than to continue their separate wars.

i) Run-on sentence as we have 2 complete sentences set-off by commas
ii) Parallelism issue

Convince can be used as follows :-
Convince someone of something
Convince someone to do something
Someone can convince someone that "a sentence"
Convince about doesn't seem idiomatic in this sentence

Pure parallelism issue - Infinitive and a gerund

i) convince for is not idiomatic
ii) Parallelism issue as highlighted

i) Correct usage of "that" - Idiomatic
ii) Fixed parallelism issue

Answer - E

Right idiom is the convince of or convince that, and only E used correct idiom. Hence E is correct

Posted from my mobile device

I also settled on E as the right answer.

A can easily be eliminated because it is a run-on sentence. It has two main clauses without an appropriate conjunction to connect them. Clause 1: Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees. Clause 2: They should unite against the white settlers rather than to continue their separate wars. In addition, the use of the infinitive to continue after rather than is not grammatical and creates a parallelism error between unite and to continue. Eliminate A.

B basically means that Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as other Indian tribes, about: 1. uniting against the white settlers and 2. discontinuing their separate wars. B uses a lengthy prepositional phrase, with two participial phrases serving as objects of the preposition about. The parallelism is okay between uniting and discontinuing. In my view, the infinitive form would be better since it would state clearly the intention that Tecumseh had when he tried to convince his fellow Shawnees. The sentence, in my opinion, would be better expressed if it was: Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees to unite against the white settlers and discontinue their separate wars. Keep B.

C: There is a parallelism error in C. to unite is not parallel to continuing. Eliminate C.

D: There is a parallelism error in D. that their separate wars should be discontinued does not have any clause in the sentence to which it can be made parallel. Eliminate D.

E: Unite and continue are parallel. In addition, the use of the subordinating that clause enables E to appropriately convey what Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees about more concisely and clearly compared to the use of a prepositional phrase that has awkward, parallel verb-ing phrases as objects in B. E is superior to B in my view. Eliminate B.

A) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as the other Indian tribes, they should unite against the white settlers rather than to continue their separate wars.

B) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as the other Indian tribes, about uniting against the white settlers and discontinuing their separate wars.

C) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as the other Indian tribes, to unite against the white settlers rather than continuing their separate wars.

D) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as the other Indian tribes, for unification against the white settlers and that their separate wars should be discontinued.

E) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees, as well as the other Indian tribes, that they should unite against the white settlers rather than continue their separate wars.

The official explanation is posted here

How can That after comma be the correct answer

Isn't antecedent of "They" ambiguous in E?

Somewhere i read, we cant have a comma before that in any case.

generis

Posted from my mobile device

Hi,
can anyone please explain me
1.if comma before that is correct her?
2. "They" isn't this ambiguous? whether they is referring to Indian Tribes or Shawnees or both.
3. Option B has no ambiguity when compared to Option E.

Hello, KSN27. I am not sure why so many people seem to have a problem with the comma before that here. Notice that the information about other Indian tribes interrupts the main clause. It is appropriate to surround such an interrupter with commas, em dashes, or parentheses. The main clause, without the interrupter, should make sense when you read it back. Test the sentences:

(A) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees... they should unite against the white settlers rather than to continue their separate wars.
(B) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees... about uniting against the white settlers and discontinuing their separate wars.
(C) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees... to unite against the white settlers rather than continuing their separate wars.
(D) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees... for unification against the white settlers and that their separate wars should be discontinued.
(E) Tecumseh struggled to convince his fellow Shawnees... that they should unite against the white settlers rather than continue their separate wars.

Others have discussed the issues with the incorrect sentences above. I merely want to point out that when a phrase or clause interrupts another and is contained within commas, you may test the shell of the sentence for agreement and logical meaning. It is not a hard-and-fast rule that a comma cannot precede that, even without an interrupter. You might see a sentence that correctly employs a comma + that construct with parallel elements, as in the following example:

He claimed innocence, testifying that he had been with a friend at a ballgame the night of the murder, that he had even saved his ticket stub in hopes of getting an autograph from a player.

As for the potential ambiguity surrounding they, it is not an issue at all in the context of the sentence. Whom did Tecumseh fail to convince? Not only Shawnees, but also other Indian tribes, all of whom can collectively be referred to as they (or them). Moreover, pronoun ambiguity is not an absolute death sentence for an answer choice. (Sorry, my thoughts are dwelling on the macabre from my example above.) Yes, choice (B) averts the potential pronoun ambiguity of (E), but convince about is just plain incorrect as an idiom in this context. Someone can convince somebody else to do something or that something needs to be done, but not convince about something.

I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

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