Punctuate direct and indirect quotations correctly.
What the lesson concludes
The comma rules the TEAS enforces cover compound sentences, introductory elements, nonessential interruptions, series, and coordinate adjectives. The Oxford comma is not one of them.
A comma alone can never join two independent clauses. That is a comma splice.
A complex sentence needs a comma only when the dependent clause opens the sentence.
In a direct quotation, the end mark and any comma sit inside the closing quotation mark.