Question

Which sentence is punctuated correctly?

Coach “says it’s best to warm up your muscles first,” then stretch carefully before you run.
Coach says it’s best to “warm up your muscles first, then stretch carefully before you run.”
Coach says, “it’s best to warm up your muscles first, then stretch carefully before you run.”
Coach says, it’s best to warm up your muscles first, then stretch carefully before you run.

Answer 1

#2 is correct
because the speech marks are put before and after warm "up your muscles first, then stretch carefully before you run", which is what the coach stated.
The line "Coach says it’s best to " is being said by the author.

Answer 2

The sentence that is punctuated correctly is the third option. Coach says, “it’s best to warm up your muscles first, then stretch carefully before you run.”

In this sentence quotations marks are used and these must be placed before an after the phrase that will be quoted. A phrase that has been already said by another person.

Quotation marks, also called quotes, quote marks, quotemarks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks, are punctuation marks employed in pairs in various writing systems to separate direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark.