ABSTRACT
Direct speech is a mode of reporting in which the speech of a character is reported as if in actual deliverance, often separated from the narrative body in written form by graphological marks. Indirect speech, on the other hand, reports the speech of a character in less precise terns, often delivering the gist of the original utterance, and nothing more. In English, this distinction is quite rigidly and purposefully maintained.
Bill said, “I can do it.”
Bill said he could do it.
