Do you agree with my rationale below? This is with regard to British punctuation. The specificity of this particular question has not previously been posted.
'I need to visit the mall', said Aunt Emma, 'to pick up some party supplies.'
(The comma goes outside the introductory quote {'I need to visit the mall',} because it is not part of the original sentence. The original sentence isn't 'I need to visit the mall, to pick up some party supplies.' Logically, a comma would not follow the word 'mall' in that sentence; hence the comma goes outside the quote mark in the introductory quote. Make sense?)
But if the sentence were 'I need to visit the mall,' said Emma, 'but I need to stop by the bank first', the comma would go inside the quote mark (in the introductory quote). This is because the comma is an inherent part of the original sentence ('I need to visit the mall, but I need to stop by the bank first.'). The comma separates two independent clauses connected by the coordinating conjunction 'but'.
By the same respect, 'Well,' said I, 'I'm sorry, but I can't do anything there' is correctly punctuated with the comma inside the quote mark in the introductory quote. The reason is that a comma naturally follows an introductory expression like 'well'.
And, finally, the comma would go outside the ending quote mark in the following example: 'Good-day, sir', said I. The reason is that the comma is not part of the initial quote.
Based on this infrastructure, I'd also propose that the following are punctuated correctly per British criteria:
•When Mike said 'Be careful what you wish for', Janet listened. (Not sure whether a comma follows 'said' here.)
•I won't accept your proposal', Dave said.
(The comma goes outside the ending quote mark here because it technically is not part of the original sentence. The original sentence would require the full stop (i.e. 'I won't accept your proposal.').
Is my explanation valid, and are all my examples punctuated correctly?
Best Answer
After looking on the web, it appears that there is no single British rule that all British publications follow. If you look at what The Guardian (certainly British) actually does, it seems to change full stops into commas and leave them inside the quotation marks:
The full stop turns into a comma (because it no longer ends a sentence), but it remains inside the quotation marks, indicating that this corresponds to a pause in the original quotation. This is what I would do, but I am American, and thus shouldn't be trusted on this.
However, some sites advocate that you use:
since there wasn't a comma in the original quotation.
The other answer links to the Oxford University Style Guide. This says
If you take this literally as written, you would have to say:
since 'Be careful what you wish for.' is a complete sentence. This looks wrong to me, but certainly much less wrong than:
I would hope nobody uses this last style.