@OP: thank you. When I criticise other people's writing, sometimes I have to type what you just said so many times, I wonder why I don't just create a macro for it. And it doesn't make me very happy.
That's an apostrophe, not a comma.
Its still good, I think.
The only thing that having the person continue speaking would change is the punctuation of the 'he said', not of the actual speech. The full stop after 'he said' is correct if the spoken sentence ended at the comma preceding the 'he said'. If it interrupts the sentence, you should use a comma.
So if your character is saying 'Don't touch that. It's poisonous,' you would break that as '"Don't touch that," he said. "It's poisonous."'
If your character is saying 'You shouldn't touch that, because it's poisonous,' you would break that as '"You shouldn't touch that," he said, "because it's poisonous."'
Scepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. - Clarence Darrow/me applauds
^^ Yeah, I think that's correct. Or at least, it's how I've always done it.
edited 28th Dec '11 11:29:09 AM by Chubert
Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka ficsMany thanks. I constantly run into something like
He said "This is a sentence,"
which looks absolutely cruddy—it's like XKCD's unmatched parenthesis, my brain just really wants something else to be there and it isn't.
Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)Have an Internet.
This thread was just so fucking necessary.
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!Yeah, as an extension of the sentence, 'he said' does not have to end a sentence if you don't want it to. So this:
"I want to eat that kitten," he said, "for it is crunchy and good with ketchup."
... would be just as grammatically-correct as this:
"I want to eat that kitten," he said. "It looks tasty."
What's precedent ever done for us?Words are our stock in trade. Grammar is one of our tools. Learn to use them.
Said is a verb. The words spoken are the object of that verb. Strictly speaking, the comma isn't necessary, and you can fight over whether the punctuation goes inside or outside the quotes.
To get even pickier, there's text as text, which doesn't take a comma. Examples: A simple "No" would suffice. He tossed an "I don't know" over his shoulder.
Also, according to the Chicago Manual of Style, adverbs are never hyphenated. The thread title would become "'This is gramatically incorrect.' She said." However, not everyone follows CMOS.
</grammar nazi>
Under World. It rocks!I learned this after reading LotR.
edited 3rd Jan '12 7:23:45 AM by Teraus
"You cannot judge a system if your judgement is determined by the system.""Eating kittens, though?" he inquired to himself, staring perplexed at the computer screen.
(屮≖益≖)屮 彡 ┻━┻ F*ck yo' table; Go read my book! —> http://goo.gl/mtXkmAh, I don't know if this has been said or not because it looks like the question was overlooked, but if you want to break up the phrase, Don't touch that, it's poisonous, you would likely write it as, "Don't touch that," he said, "it's poisonous." The sentence "he" is saying is still a sentence, and only needs one period. Unless you are making it two sentences (i.e. "Don't touch that. It's poisonous.") where in that case you would write it as, "Don't touch that," he said. "It's poisonous."
Basically, imagine the speaker writing out his own sentence, and then use commas, quotation marks, and extensions as necessary.
I'm pretty sure the concept of Law having limits was a translation error. -Wanderlustwarrior

A public-service announcement, copy-pasted from another thread, because I see this sort of thing far too often in Internet fiction.
Things like 'he said' and 'she asked' are extensions of the sentence within the quotation-marks, and should not be capitalised. Furthermore, full stops preceding 'he said's should be turned into commas, though other punctuation-marks, like ? and !, should remain as they are. Some examples:
Correct: "I want to eat that kitten, " he said. Incorrect: "I want to eat that kitten." He said.
Correct: "Do you want to eat that kitten?" she asked. Incorrect: "Do you want to eat that kitten?" She asked.
Make sense?
What's precedent ever done for us?