Mindef said: “SAF personnel who conduct unauthorised activities, or who wilfully or negligently fail to comply with training safety regulations, will be severely dealt with and prosecuted under military law… or under criminal law before the civil courts.”
Is the comma after “activities” needed?
Thanks.
I don’t think the comma after activities nor the comma after regulations are required. I could not find any rules that specifically call for commas here. Some people just like to add commas to a long sentence to break it up into smaller sections or to indicate where the reader would pause.
Edited: I think the commas may be not just unnecessary, but incorrect. This is from here: Extended Rules for Commas - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University (by the way, I highly recommend this Purdue Writing Lab website. It is quite exhaustive, yet easy to understand. )
14. Don’t put a comma between the two nouns, noun phrases, or noun clauses in a compound subject or compound object.
INCORRECT (compound subject): The music teacher from your high school, and the football coach from mine are married.
INCORRECT (compound object): Jeff told me that the job was still available, and that the manager wanted to interview me.