Difference between も兼ねて・を兼ねて


Someone asked her friend (in a TV show) 「宿題の答え合わせも兼ねて 勉強会をやりませんか?」 in the
sense of "Want to do a study session, and compare our homework answers while
we're at it?". Would the meaning change if も兼ねて were replaced by を兼ねて?

BTW, I didn't find a lot of references to this particular meaning of 兼ねて in
English-language Japanese study materials online. Is this a common way of
using 兼ねて?




I think that も might be a little more natural than を here, because it reflects
the idea that it is something "extra" (like an extra activity, an extra
benefit, etc.) that is "added" to the main idea of meeting up for a study
session.

In your translation, you could incorporate this nuance more directly by adding
"also":

> Want to do a study session, and **also** compare our homework answers while
> we're at it?

Since 兼ねて already has the meaning of doing something alongside something else,
I guess を兼ねて would mean more or less the same. However, if the sentence were

> 宿題の答え合わせも **目的に** 、勉強会をやりませんか?

replacing も by を would give the sentence a new meaning: namely, that comparing
would be the main (or the only) activity for something you're calling 勉強会.

