In 2000, Nora de Hoyos Comstock, herself an owner of a successful consulting firm, sought to increase Latina representation in...

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

• In 2000,
• Nora de Hoyos Comstock,
  • herself an owner of a successful consulting firm,
• sought to increase Latina representation in corporate settings
• [?]
• founded Las Comadres para las Americas,
  • an international community that for over two decades has served as a resource and information network for Latina business professionals.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning to understand what's happening:

In 2000,

• Nora de Hoyos Comstock,
  • herself an owner of a successful consulting firm (this tells us about Nora's background)
• sought to increase Latina representation in corporate settings

So we have a complete action here: Nora sought to increase representation.

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• A: 'she' (just space)
• B: ', she' (comma)
• C: 'and she' (conjunction)
• D: '. She' (period with capital S)

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues:

• [she] founded Las Comadres para las Americas,
  • an international community
  • that for over two decades has served as a resource and information network for Latina business professionals

So this tells us what Nora actually did - she founded this organization that has been helping Latina business professionals for over 20 years.

Now, what do we notice about the structure here?

We actually have TWO complete thoughts:

• First complete thought: 'Nora de Hoyos Comstock... sought to increase Latina representation in corporate settings'
  • This has a subject (Nora) and a verb (sought)
  • It expresses a complete idea - it could stand alone as a sentence
• Second complete thought: 'She founded Las Comadres para las Americas...'
  • This has a subject (She) and a verb (founded)
  • It also expresses a complete idea - it could stand alone too

The key question is: How do we properly handle two complete thoughts?

• You CANNOT simply run them together (no punctuation)
• You CANNOT connect them with just a comma (that creates an error called a comma splice)
• You CAN either:
  • Separate them with a period (two sentences)
  • Connect them with a conjunction like 'and'

Looking at our options:

• Choice C ('and she') would connect them into one compound sentence
• Choice D ('. She') would separate them into two sentences

Both are grammatically possible, but notice how substantial that second complete thought is - it's quite long with all that information about what Las Comadres has done for two decades.

When you have two significant, complete actions like this, and especially when the second one is lengthy, separating them into two clear sentences gives you the best clarity:

• Sentence 1: What Nora sought to do
• Sentence 2: What she founded and what it became

So we need Choice D: a period, creating two separate sentences.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Separating Complete Thoughts (Independent Clauses)

When you have two complete thoughts - each with its own subject and verb that could stand alone as a sentence - you must properly connect or separate them.

What you CANNOT do:

• Run them together with no punctuation: 'I went to the store she stayed home'
• Connect them with only a comma: 'I went to the store, she stayed home' (comma splice error)

What you CAN do:

Option 1: Separate with a period (two sentences)

• 'I went to the store. She stayed home.'
• Each complete thought gets its own sentence
• Best when each action is significant and substantial

Option 2: Connect with a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, so, yet)

• 'I went to the store, and she stayed home.'
• Creates one compound sentence
• Best when the clauses are closely related and relatively balanced in length

Option 3: Use a semicolon

• 'I went to the store; she stayed home.'
• Shows close relationship between the thoughts
• Less common on the SAT

In this question:

• Complete thought 1: 'Nora de Hoyos Comstock sought to increase Latina representation in corporate settings'
• Complete thought 2: 'She founded Las Comadres para las Americas, an international community that for over two decades has served as a resource and information network for Latina business professionals'
• Since the second thought is lengthy and substantial, separating them with a period (Choice D) creates the clearest, most balanced structure