A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation

This book is so easy to chew through, I knocked out half of the book while on a trip and was so pleasantly surprised by how wonderfully engaging the text is. Its full of fantastic nuggets and examples, really helping clear up a lot of my own questions about proper punctuation. Turns out, its not so cut and dry and there's a lot of ways to tweak and communicate a voice and style through punctuation! So neat.

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

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.

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.

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!