Without changing the following to reported speech, are they punctuated correctly in AmE? (1) When Joe asked "Where's the beer?" his wife pointed to the cooler. (Would you insert any commas in this sentence? If so, where?) (2) When Joe screamed "Somebody drank all my beer!" the whole neighborhood heard him. (Would you insert any commas in this sentence? If so, where?) (3) When Joe said "Please don't drink any of my beer" everyone listened. (No commas, correct? If so, where?) Thank you.
commas are needed in all examples, in the usual dialog tag places, as they're all dialog tags, whether placed before or after the dialog... you seem to be confusing this with paraphrasing, in which commas would not be used in the same way and there would be no " ": When Joe asked where the beer was, his wife pointed to the cooler. When Joe screamed that somebody drank all of his beer, the whole neighborhood heard him. When Joe said not to drink any of his beer, everyone listened.
I researched and researched and found this in The Copyeditor's Handbook, by Amy Einsohn (no commas). So it's safe to assume that commas aren't required in the other two examples. When customers ask "Do you have this in my size?" you should help them. And, no, I'm not confusing the principle with paraphrasing. That's solely your misinterpretation, so I kindly ask that you not make hasty assumptions.
it is totally unacceptable to quote a member's private email message on the site without their permission! please remove any reference to my private communications to you immediately...
thanks to whoever deleted that post! i can only assume it was a mod or the admin, since the poster just now emailed me to say he would not do so...
