[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Indeed I think that is the standard. I was completely thrown by your first post in this thread - you had a link to a reputable source, but I just thought I had never seen it done the way you proposed.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Note that the 'said' isn't capitalised just because the direct speech itself is a whole sentence. There's no need to change the full-stop to a comma.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/wo...-direct-speech gives a good summary.

Having re-read my reference, I see that although it says a full stop can be used, in all the examples given a comma is used, even if the speech completes a sentence.

So I'm wrong in theory and practice on this point. Apologies.