VERY stupid question on how to print/echo stuff to forum
 

I have made a custom plugin $displaymark inside the forumdisplay_start hook

I went into the style and placed $displaymark under the threadlist.

Now when I edit the $displaymark hook and tell it to start echoing some of the stuff I want it to output

echo "First order is:<br />";
echo "Second order is:<br />";

it actually prints the stuff out on the top of the forum page instead of under the threadlist, the place where i placed the $displaymark variable.

I know this is happening because i'm using echo. But what is the proper call to print words on the screen so that it goes in the proper location?

thanjks!

I usually just create variables in my plugin and spit them out in the template.

Example, in the plugin I write:
In my template I write:
and on my page I see:
Myvariable is 1000