| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| DIRECT ADDRESS, DIRECT QUOTATION, INDIRECT ADDRESS, INDIRECT DISCOURSE, INDIRECT QUOTATION |
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| Direct address is a term used to describe the use of a name or a personal pronoun to gain the attention of one or more persons being spoken to face to face, over the telephone, or in an apostrophe (see APOSTROPHE [1]), as well as in writing (Now, dear reader,…). Intonation in speech and punctuation in writing distinguish direct address from another structure: compare Can you hear, John? (which is direct address) and Can you hear John? (which is not). Direct address is also the exact words used by a speaker or writer, and this sort of direct address is always put within quotation marks. Indirect address and indirect discourse are paraphrases of a person’s words (hence no quotation marks), as in I said that I couldn’t go. | 1 |
| These are the conventions for handling direct and indirect quotations in writing: when you quote someone directly, you give the exact words uttered, and you enclose them in quotation marks: He said, “Go home.” An indirect quotation paraphrases those exact words, usually with that, and no quotation marks are needed. He said [that] I should go home. | 2 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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