Does an external .js file require <script> tags?

Question

Does an external .js file require internal and containing tags to work?

Answer 1

No they're not needed, in fact you'll get a syntax error if you include them.

Your .js files should contain only JavaScript, no HTML tags around it, like would have inside a page.

Answer 2

No, it does not. The external file just needs the code.
Then you just need to do <script src="file.js" type="text/javascript"></script>.