British style... Did Jane ask' "Where did he go?" Did Jane say, "Go to your room"? I heard Mike say, "Please make the shipment by noon." Sally said, "I heard Mike say, 'Please make the shipment by noon.'" "I won't", Mike said, "do something so egregious." Comma outside the first quote because a comma wouldn't be included in the initial sentence, right? But: "I won't be able to do it," Mike said, "but I'll make my best effort." Comma inside the first quoted material because the sentence's punctuation calls for it at that point, correct? Thank you.
the second [after 'but'] is correctly typed, but that's not the reason for the comma... the reason is that it's a continued line of dialog, interrupted by the dialog tag... the first is incorrect in US usage, because the same rule applies... i doubt it's correct even in UK usage... but i could be wrong... and your first example sentence has an apostrophe that must be a typo, because there's no reason for one being where a comma is called for...
