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A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation

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I've taught literature and writing at Clarke College, The University of Iowa, and Rutgers University since 1993, and have reviewed a plethora of books on punctuation during this time. Mr. Lukeman's A DASH OF STYLE: THE ART AND MASTERY OF PUNCTUATION sets itself apart from every book on punctuation I've ever perused. Every page of Mr. Lukeman's book is filled with key insights on how punctuation can be used to create seminal emotional experiences in the minds and hearts of readers. Through countless examples, Mr. Lukeman teaches aspiring and accomplished writers the higher level uses of punctuation to express the full gamut of lived experiences. I cannot laud A DASH OF STYLE enough. It's strength is the many examples provided by Mr. Lukeman. He is a master teacher of writing, and I recommend all of his books wholeheartedly.

I've just finished reading "A Dash of Style - The Art and Mastery of Punctuation" and I have to tell any budding author reading this, it's a great book.

Noah has written this book specifically for fiction writers, because lets face it, we can get away with more shall we say 'creative license' than other forms of writing.

The first part of the book is devoted to the period . / the comma , / and the semicolon ; Noah gives us many great examples on each, showing us what all these punctuation marks can do for pace and maturity in a book. I really enjoyed how he describes looking at your work and having a good think about each mark you place. What is it like without it, what if you add a semicolon, does it build suspense etc etc

In the second part he touches on colons : / dashes - - / parentheses ( ) / quotation marks " " / paragraph breaks and section breaks. This is the only area I was slightly disappointed. The information on dashes and parentheses was really good, but I thought the quotation marks was a little thinner that I would rather. Speech in a book is one of the most visible punctuation areas and I struggle a little with using it effectively. Still, it gave me more knowledge than I had before, and I suspect you could write a whole book on effective use of quotation marks.

The last section includes the question mark ? / exclamation point ! / italics / points of ellipses ... and the hyphen - By this time the book feels like it is in wrap up mode, but there is still a great amount of knowledge imparted with great examples from familiar literature.

At the end of each section Noah includes exercises you can try out with your own work. I have done a couple of them and my writing is definitely better for it.

I am VERY glad I bought this book and already it is a reference for my own writing. Noah Lukeman's style is engaging enough that you can read it without putting yourself to sleep. Anyone who is writing fiction will get great use out of "A Dash of Style - The Art and Mastery of Punctuation".

This is a small, attractive book that you'll be thankful is hardback because you will be referencing it again and again.

With chapter titles like: Comma, or Period, I expected this book to be dreadfully tedious. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Mr. Lukeman has truly lived up to the promise he makes that this style guide is like none other. We are not only taught how to correctly use punctuation, but also how to maximize each mark to our work's fullest stylistic advantage.

I have already high-lighted my copy extensively and will continue to go back to it throughout my writing lifetime.

If you are a creative writer, from poetry to novel writing, this book is something you should have on your permanent reference shelf.

After reading this, I can't wait to get back to my novel and bravely use a colon, parenthesis or the occasional sentence strewn with commas, to make my prose sing. I have a new tool that will help me maximize my skills in a way I couldn't have without this help.

My highest recommendation!

Noah Lukeman's latest book about punctuation fills an oft-ignored gap in the creative writing library, covering a part of writing that most people take for granted. After all, punctuation is not writing, right? Actually, it is writing; and Lukeman shows just how important punctuation is for good writing.

He claims that this book, like his previous ones, is written for creative writers, and most of the insights the book contains do help writers of fiction better understand punctuation. However, there is one major drawback: many of the examples he provides of incorrect usage are so exaggeratingly bad that few creative writers would ever have committed them. If he had included more realistic examples, this book would be a lot more useful. Certainly, the examples of _good_ usage are fine, many of them from published works. But the bad examples are worse than bad, something that most writers would never pen.

Nevertheless, the value of this book is quite apparent when you start looking at your own work and realizing that you have far more options than you may have considered. Most writers don't have any inkling of how to use the semi-colon, for example; yet it is one of the most powerful squiggles on the page. As for periods, most authors think they are just for separation--Lukeman shows how creative period usage can change rhythm and tone through varying sentence length. As for the comma, well, that's a tough one for many authors, and it gets good treatment here.

All in all, this is certainly worth the money, but I don't think it will help bad writers write better. It will, however, help anyone who knows how to write add the subtle effects of punctuation to their existing palette of colors.

All of us studied punctuation in school, more or less successfully. How boring you must be thinking. But note the title - The Art and Mastery. Here is not the general rules from high school. Here is how Joseph Conrad used the comma to masterly effect, and how writers like Gertrude Stein and Cormac McCarthy underused it for startling artistic purposes. Here is how E. M. Forster used the dash and how William Faulkner sometimes underused the period.

We are taught in school that we have to follow the rules. This is a book that goes beyond that, it teaches you how to break the rules. But it's how to break the rules so that you can create the effect that you need for the moment you are creating.

You might consider this a graduate course in punctuation oriented to the writer - and writer includes novelists, short story writers, poets, memoirists -- even the mundane copywriter doing advertising - perhaps especially him.

Mr. Lukeman is a literary agent and writer who specializes in creative writing for writers.

"Punctuation reveals the writer." In short, it's an art form.

Sure, there are 17 rules for using the comma. But how might it best serve the work, best illuminate meaning?

Lukeman's unique guide, brimming with excerpts from the masters, offers how-to mastery of the craft. No pedantry here. No reason to yawn. Entertaining and lucid, this is prose to savor as well as learn from. He unpacks the basics as well as artful exceptions and nuance.

Overuse, underuse, misuse -- each pitfall is demonstrated for each punctuation mark. You want to absorb all this man knows, roll up your sleeves, revise old work.

Avid readers will benefit, too. Lukeman's insights also aim to increase reading enjoyment, sharpen perceptions. Of a selected passage, rife with endstops, he writes: "We actually feel [the character] thinking ..., each period hammering it home."

With his expertise and influence in the publishing world, Lukeman's already a treasure. And now, a portable mentor. He genuinely cares that every work -- and every writer -- excels.

Noah Lukeman's "A Dash of Style" examines how the use of punctuation profoundly affects the meaning and impact of a writer's work. Lukeman's audience includes novelists, poets, screenwriters, and even writers of nonfiction. The author believes that in order to succeed at his craft, a writer must become a master of--and not a slave to--the punctuation marks at his disposal. Punctuation can be "a medium for artistic expression," not merely a mundane tool in the writer's arsenal. As Francine Prose did in her "Reading Like a Writer," Lukeman turns to such literary masters as Shakespeare, E. M. Forster, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce, as well as to other lesser known writers, to illustrate his points

This slim volume is divided into three parts: "The Triumvirate," which includes advice about the use of the period, the comma, and the semicolon; "Into the Limelight," in which Lukeman gives center stage to the colon, dash, parentheses, paragraph breaks, and section breaks; and "Proceed with Caution," which warns the reader to use the question mark, exclamation point, italics, ellipses, and the hyphen sparingly and with care. Lukeman discusses the overuse, misuse, and proper use of each punctuation mark. There are rules that limit how and when each type of punctuation should be used, but in some cases, the rules can and should be broken. The writer must listen to the rhythm of words with his inner ear. By using punctuation marks judiciously, writers control such elements as the pace of the text and the impact of dialogue. To help the writer put his advice into practice, Lukeman includes interactive exercises throughout the book.

"A Dash of Style" is breezy, fast-paced, and entertaining, and it has useful tips that can help make any writer a more thoughtful craftsman. After reading this book, writers will be more likely to monitor the length of their sentences, employ a consistent style that fits the content of the work, use such punctuation marks as the colon and semicolon more creatively, and take extra care that the punctuation marks they use fit together effectively to convey the work's meaning. As Lukeman says, "We begin to see that punctuation marks by themselves are like colors in a palette: it is only through the collective that they become all they were meant to be."

ADDED NOTE: I recently e-mailed Mr. Lukeman about the use of the word "belie" in his book.

For those purists out there, here is my quibble:

You [Mr. Lukeman] write on page 15, "Punctuation, more than anything, belies--clarity--or chaos--of thought."

Later, on page 136, you write, "The overuse of the dash belies scattered thought."

The dictionary definition of "belie" is:
1 a : to give a false impression of b : to present an appearance not in agreement with
2 a : to show (something) to be false or wrong b : to run counter to : CONTRADICT

Didn't you mean the opposite of what you wrote? Doesn't the writer's use of punctuation marks INDICATE, not belie, his clarity or chaos of thought? Doesn't the overuse of dashes INDICATE, not belie, that the writer's thought processes are scattered and disorganized? Therefore, the word "belie" would not make sense in these two cases. If I am wrong, please set me straight.

This is now the number one reference book in my "writing library". No longer having to worry about the nit-picking view of many of my "pre-liberation" educators, I am now free to explore the many aspects of what punctuation is really meant to be used for. Kudos to Mr. Lukeman for freeing punctuation from all those precisely-crafted "rules" and giving writers the means to truly express themselves without fear of ridicule.

When I first saw this book I was skeptical: a book on punctuation? An entire chapter on the period, one on the comma, etc? What could someone possibly say about the period for an entire chapter?

I wasn't going to give this book a look but since I think Noah Lukeman's other two books are so good I decided to give this one a go. Luckily it was easy and didn't cost me anything: my local library had a copy.

As I progressed through it I saw how wrong I was. Noah Lukeman has obviously been editing and writing books for quite some time and has insight into how things should be done and luckily he is kind enough to share his wisdom with the rest of us.

I got half-way through the library copy and decided this one was a keeper. I ordered my own copy from Amazon. Grab a copy, and if you don't have his first two books, get them too.

Mr. Lukeman, forgive me for even being the least bit skeptical. After reading your first two books I should have known you would never put out anything that wasn't thoroughly useful to other authors. Thanks a bunch, and I look forward to whatever you've got coming next.

This compact new book on punctuation uniquely complements standard college writing guides like THE BEDFORD HANDBOOK, now in its seventh edition, the all-time bestselling college textbook. The Bedford as well as several other college writing handbooks, such as THE HARBRACE HANDBOOK, I have used in my teaching cite punctuation examples mostly from nonfiction works.

This book's uniqueness arises from its approach: illustrating punctuation "rules" with examples drawn mostly from literary works. Moreover, the author points out how literary masters flout "rules" to create special effects. The works cited include excerpts from numerous writers such as Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Joyce Carol Oates.

Excellent book for fiction writers.

C J Singh