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"One of the Best Writing Books of the Year."
--The Writer

"AN INSTANT CLASSIC."
--International Bestseller M.J. Rose

What Writing Professors are Saying:

"PITHY, ELEGANT."
--Paul Cody, Ithaca College

"A PAGE TURNER."
--Brian Ascalon Roley, Miami University (Ohio)

"GENIUS."
--Dr. Peggy Brown, Colin County Community

"A MASTER CLASS."
--John Burt, Brandeis University

"FLAWLESS."
--John Smolens, Northern Michigan MFA

"SOMETHING TO
REALLY CELEBRATE!"
--Phyllis Moore, Kansas City Art Institute

 

#1 Bestseller on Amazon Shorts

A Selection of the Writers Digest Book Club

Named One of the Best Writing Books of the Year by The Writer


The first practical and accessible guide to
the art of punctuation for creative writers

 

       Why did Poe and Melville rely on the semicolon? Why did Hemingway and Carver embrace the period? Filled with examples from literary masters, A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation is the first guide to punctuation for the readership that needs it the most: creative writers. In the tradition of Elements of Style, it can also be used by anyone hoping to write well.
        Punctuation reveals the writer: haphazard periods, for example, reveal haphazard thinking. Semicolons might indicate affectation; colons might denote melodrama; dashes might point to scattered thought. Yet in the right hands, these marks can also transform your writing from the banal to the exquisite. Punctuation can be used to teach the writer how to think, and subsequently how to write.
        A short, practical book, filled with original exercises, A Dash of Style teaches writers the benefits that can be reaped from mastering punctuation, such as word economy, enhanced style, clarity, progression and intention. Along with the major marks (the period, comma, semicolon, colon, quotation marks, the dash and parentheses) the book examines little-scrutinized marks such as the paragraph break and section break, and finally considers how they all might be used together in “The Symphony of Punctuation."
        Brief, interactive and highly engaging, A Dash of Style
will be a necessity for creative writers, along with anyone hoping to make punctuation their friend instead of mysterious foe.

to be published by WW Norton in the U.S. (April 2006)
by Oxford University Press in the U.K. (April 2006)
by Livraria Martins Fontes Editora in Brazil (April 2006)

click here to buy on Amazon

aop-uk.jpg (76846 bytes)  click here to visit the website for the British edition

Noah Lukeman's other titles:

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