Ok, if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of it, we can do that. The semicolon was acceptable in that use, but both parts of the sentence referenced the class, they weren't really interdependent. Besides, assertational ideas are generally more effective when kept in shorter sentences. So basically, yes, it was more a stylistic change than a grammatical change - and it could 'legally' go both ways - but I think my way looks cleaner.
Here again we are getting into the argument of what is acceptable and what is proper. "That" is used to introduce a subordinate clause as the subject or object of the principal verb in this sentence (long, drawn-out description courtesy of dictionary.com). Basically, you have two noun/verb pairs in your sentence ("I would hope" and "You could have taken"), and they need a conjunction to separate them in order for the sentence to be technically correct; that is why I put "that" there.
You can't out-grammar-**** the Grammar ****. John can attest to this.
I'm glad you grasped the intent of my original post :facepalm:. Yes, I can out-grammar you without the use of researching before hand.
