Is it OK to use quoted speech in Wh-question answers?

[riceball72]

Hi

The situation... students read a passage and then answer questions.

If in the passage there was quoted (direct) speech, and one of the questions was...

What did the Doctor say? or What did Sarah say?

Would you accept an answer that was basically a copy of what was in the passage?
ie He said, "......" or She said, "It is silly to ...."??

Grammatically is it OK to answer a question like this or is it more common / normal to answer with reported speech?

I would be grateful for any opinions.
Thanks

[Casiopea]

Both are acceptable - unless, the purpose of the exercise is to test your knowledge of reported speech.