A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation

This is an excellent guide for creative writers. As a writer, I enjoyed the plethora of literature examples which served perfectly as the basis for Lukeman’s helpful advice.

A Dash of Style is a well-written and necessary book full of gems for every writer or would-be writer. Reading the book was a pleasure in itself. It has increased my ability to write well and practicing the writing assignments has improved my writing considerably! Although these are rules and writing skills one learned or should have learned in school, this book provides an enjoyable review of writing helps that are turning my previously written pieces into masterpieces. Thank you, Mr. Lukeman!

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 etcIn 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".

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.

I purchased this book in the hopes it would aid in teaching punctuation to my junior high writing class. Mr. Lukeman points out that punctuation serves the reader, and I agree. However, as he states in his introduction, his book is mainly written for "creative" writers. He skillfully teaches ways to use punctuation for effect, but he obviously does not know how to use commas according to standard rules. (He does subtly scorn "correct" usage.) He makes several inaccurate statements about usage and does not punctuate his own writing correctly (or perhaps he had a poor editor). The passages from other written works, used for examples to illustrate points about the use of punctuation, also often do not exhibit correct usage.His use of punctuation is a more conversational style, suited mainly for fiction, where the writer has more liberty and punctuation is used to serve the needs of the story. I can see this as a good resource if you are a creative writer, but it will probably not make you a better writer for business or school purposes, as he claims. Business writing demands excellence and clarity, where a wrong word or punctuation mark can have greater consequences. For school, it might make you a better writer than you are now, but it will not make you an excellent writer.It is often said that one must learn the rules before attempting to break them. Learn from the grammar teacher first how to properly use the rules of punctuation, and then you may obtain greater benefit from Mr. Lukeman's book about how to use or break those rules to create dramatic effect in your writing.

I got a stack of books from the library on punctuation and language development. Most of these books are dry and pretty dogmatic on the "rules of writing". Noah Lukeman has written a lively, exciting book on the best uses of punctuation. I immediately knew I needed this book on my shelf. He describes what the different forms of punctuation are and the various uses each can be used for. He gives examples to illustrate these, often from famous authors. Nothing is ever a rule-set-in-stone. As a matter of fact, he often shows how individual writers use punctuation in novel or surprising ways. At the end of each chapter, he has suggestions on how to apply the information to your own writing. JUST BUY IT! GUARANTEED YOU'LL LOVE IT!

Smartest book on punctuation styles I've ever read. Very helpful. These books should only be read and studied as a guideline, but this book in particular doesn't pretend to be anything other than a smart addition to your writer's reference set. Noah is a good writer, too. Very personable, which is hard to find in a book of this nature. Highly recommended to writers who are looking to change things up in their style.

A terrific book on punctuation. It's very well written, easy to comprehend and very helpful. The best book on punctuation I've ever found.

英語の句読点、ピリオド、コンマ、セミコロン、コロン、ダッシュ、括弧、パラグラフとその段落、疑問符、感嘆符、イタリックス、省略のドット、ハイフンなどの使い方を易しく解説した書。これらの句読点を調味料にたとえて、振りかけると文体が格段に向上することから、書名のA Dash of Styleが生まれた。おしゃれな書名に反せず内容も簡にして要を得ている。一例のみあげよう。次例のうちどちらがよいと思いますか。答えは本書79頁。The sun lit up the wall, and I shielded my eyes from the glare.The sun lit up the wall; I shielded my eyes from the glare.

This book does exactly what it says on the tin, and superbly. Noah Lukeman knows his stuff to the nth degree. Fifty stars. Thank you, Noah.