To talk about what people have said we use quotations in the written form. Quoted speech is that referred to between double quotation marks the stuff found in the literature as part of a discourse between two or more people. Reported speech differs from that because there is usually a third person that will mention what two other people discussed. It will begin like the quoted form but there will be no quotations marks and the tense used is in the past. Speakers should be aware of the person they want to use when using reported speech so there will be no confusion. To turn quoted speech into the reported variety it is best to understand the tenses that are being used because if I have I quoted something in the present it is likely to be transposed into the past if it is reported. So a statement like She said, "I will be there", then the reported speech is she said she would be there. Here the "will" is converted to "would". Similarly if I say she said "she can do it" that becomes "She said she could do it". There are exceptions especially when one wants to report something that is still current at the time quote is said. Then there would be no change of will or can into their past forms.
