SC guide 4th edition CH 10 problem set Q3

[itzdeepika]

Q- The invitees to the fundraiser include: Corporate sponsors, major individual donors, and important local leaders.

The answer given is :
The invitees to the fundraiser include Corporate sponsors, major individual donors, and important local leaders.

Y cant the answer be:
The fundraiser had invitees: Corporate sponsors, major individual donors, and important local leaders.

Please let me know.

[esledge]

The original sentence failed because the colon was used incorrectly:

(1) The colon didn't pass the "namely" or "such as" test:
The invitees to the fundraiser include (namely) corporate sponsors, major individual donors, and important local leaders.
Since you don't need the "namely," you don't need the colon.

(2) The part of the sentence before the colon was not an independent clause (i.e. a complete sentence):
The invitees to the fundraiser include. Include what/whom? This is left hanging.

The book solution just takes the offending colon out.

Your suggested solution fixes the colon issues:
(1) It passes the "namely" test:
The fundraiser had invitees(, namely) corporate sponsors, major individual donors, and important local leaders.
(2) "The fundraiser had invitees" is a grammatically complete sentence (Subject Verb Object).

But I think your sentence changes the meaning a bit. Can a fundraiser "have" or possess anything? Also, by removing "including," you allow an alternate interpretation: that this list of three types of attendees is complete. The original just suggested that these three types were among the attendees, but maybe an incomplete list.