Writing the quotes paragraph of a journalistic report

The quotes section of a journalistic report should begin with an introductory sentence about witnesses. The sentence preceding reported speech can introduce the witness and provide greater detail about them. The quote from the witness can be more informal in language and tone than the rest of the paragraph. A reporting clause can come before or after direct speech. Inverted commas are used to demarcate speech and a piece of punctuation separates speech from the reporting clause.