The way to present spoken words as reported or direct speech is an important skill to acquire. Reported speech is sometimes called indirect speech, and in order to understand this fully a good knowledge of how to write direct speech is really important. Direct speech refers to the actual words that are spoken by a person, in a situation or in a story . Punctuation of Direct Speech There are specific rules for punctuating direct speech: Speech Marks : The actual words spoken appear between speech marks (single or double). All other punctuation appears within the speech marks. ‘How do you feel now?’ I asked. End of dialogue : Often, when writing direct speech, the speaker will be identified with something like he said or cried Juan . If this comes after a piece of direct speech, then that direct speech will usually end with a comma, although it can use a question mark, ellipses or exclamation ...
David White is an Australian English teacher who has been living in Peru since 2001. In partnership with his wife Claudia, they are the owners of ¨English For You Language Institute´, an institute that specializes in the teaching of all levels of English from Basic (A1) to Advanced (C2) including international exam preparation. They are also the owners of ELT Educational Services and David is also the Headmaster of the American School, a respected bilingual ib school in Northern Peru.