{"id":2616,"date":"2009-08-14T00:28:39","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T07:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2009-08-14T00:28:39","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T07:28:39","slug":"noah-lukeman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/noah-lukeman\/","title":{"rendered":"Noah Lukeman on the Colon, That Most Majestic of Punctuation Marks . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Noah
Noah Lukeman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Wow! A book on punctuation. By Noah Lukeman. <\/em>The bookstore\u00a0had an entire\u00a0book\u00a0 on punctuation by this master of the dot and the dash. My heart lept.<\/p>\n

It was called A Dash of Style: The Art\u00a0and Mastery of Punctuation. <\/em>I bought it.<\/p>\n

I’m a grammar geek, and ever since I read Lukeman’s treatise on the comma — the comma!<\/em> — in the March\/April 2006 issue of\u00a0 The Writer’s Chronicle, I have been a fan.\u00a0\u00a0A\u00a0devotee. No, let’s face it, a groupie. This man Lukeman knows\u00a0 what to do with a comma.\u00a0Not to mention a\u00a0period. Or a semicolon.\u00a0Or my default favorite —\u00a0the dash.<\/p>\n

Take the colon, for example.\u00a0Maybe you write\u00a0the colon off as that\u00a0unassuming\u00a0pair of dots found on formal business letters, or signalling an upcoming\u00a0list. And that would be too bad. Because, according to Lukeman, <\/em>the colon is majestic, dramatic, a writer’s most powerful punctuation\u00a0tool.<\/p>\n

“When it comes to dramatic revelation,” Lukeman<\/a> writes, “the colon has no second. In this function, the colon acts as a mark point, with the text preceding it building to a revelation, and the text that follows living up to the promise.”<\/p>\n

Lukeman suggests comparing this (colonless) sentence:<\/p>\n

I grabbed my bag, put on my coat, and stepped out the door, as I wasn’t coming back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With this one:<\/p>\n

I grabbed my bag, put on my coat, and stepped out the door: I wasn’t coming back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See what I mean?<\/p>\n

It’s late. I’m tired. I’m going to bed, and I’m taking Noah Lukeman with me: I want to\u00a0know what he thinks of the dash.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"bookA Dash of Style: The Art\u00a0and Mastery of Punctuation, <\/em>by Noah Lukeman<\/a>, W.W. Norton, 2006, paper, $13.95.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you liked this post, you might enjoy one I wrote about President Obama and rhetoric<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"374\"]\"Noah Noah Lukeman[\/caption]\n

Ever since I read Noah Lukeman’s treatise on the comma in a 2006 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle, I have been a fan. A devotee. No, let’s face it, a groupie. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52],"tags":[34,220,379,82,380,69],"class_list":["post-2616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-writing-reading","category-the-writing-room","tag-dont-miss","tag-grammar-geek","tag-noah-lukeman","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-punctuation","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}