"When Bill called me I was discussing the outcome of the project with Jessie," said Daniel. Daniel said he was discussing the outcome of the project with Jessie when Bill called him.
Is this correct?
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If this is an exercise in some English class, you should change the tense, because that's probably what your teacher expects and using had been discussing here is perfectly grammatical. – Peter Shor Nov 13 '18 at 13:51
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However, assignments in English classes are beyond our purview. I'm more concerned with learning English, nor pleasing some English teacher. Both of the sentences cited are perfectly grammatical as they are, and both describe the same situation. To answer the actual question, No, it is not grammatically incorrect to not change past continuous to past perfect cont. in reported speech. It's a very minor and often ignored rule, more honored in the breach than the observance. Even if your teacher notices, native speakers don't. – John Lawler Nov 13 '18 at 16:24