Whether it is in direct speech or the indirect, punctuation marks such as the comma, full stop and question mark should be diligently and carefully handled to avoid confusion or outright errors.

Do direct or indirect effects have a greater impact in structuring communities? In a review of experimental studies, Schoener (1993) reported that only about one quarter of all community change ...

Did you say anything to her? I told her nothing about it! Note that when we are quoting direct speech, say is the more commonly used verb as say refers to any kind of speech. Tell is used only ...

In order to make this clear, writers use direct speech: Direct speech is any word spoken by a character. It can be used to help develop the characters and plot Punctuation is used in direct speech ...