March/April 2005 | Home

Ask Elaine: The Truth About Ampersands

by Elaine Parrish
DMV Copyeditor/EBSTC Senior Member

If you have an editing question you’d like to see addressed in a future column, please submit it to Ask Elaine.

As a technical communicator, you’re always looking for ways to make every word count. To be able to write concisely is a highly valued skill. You also want your writing to be “reader-friendly,” flowing naturally without seeming overly formal or stilted. Streamlining your writing is a desirable goal, but don’t be tempted to take shortcuts that make your writing so casual it appears unprofessional.

The Ampersand Shortcut

For example, many writers, perhaps taking their cue from informal email communications or popular advertising, get carried away by using the ampersand symbol (&) instead of spelling out the word and. It’s true that the ampersand is a cute and handy little symbol whose use saves two keystrokes. It also has a distinguished history. If you look closely at the symbol, you can see that it is a combination of the letters E and T joined together. Those two letters spell et (Latin for and).

Effects of the Ampersand

You’d think a symbol with its roots in Latin would lend a certain air of sophistication to text, but the ampersand has the opposite effect: it makes the writing seem careless, as if the writer had hastily slapped it together. That’s perfectly OK for an informal email message to your friend (“Bob & Tom are coming to the party Saturday & will call you & let you know what time they’ll be there”), but you want to avoid that effect in serious writing. Besides, if you use one ampersand, they will start to multiply and ultimately become very distracting to the reader (“Press & hold Control, Alt, & Delete simultaneously & bring up Task Manager & see what applications & processes are running”).

The ampersand does have its uses, but they are limited. Use an ampersand in the title of a company when the company styles it that way (AT&T, for example), or for two items that are conventionally known as an established unit (M&P). As a general rule though, if you’re not absolutely sure whether an ampersand is appropriate, use and instead. The bottom line: when in doubt, spell it out.

If you’re like me, you probably see amusing word usage all over the place—a lot of it written by people who are actually getting paid to do it. Here are three of my favorites:

Where Ever You Go

(…you’ll find slogan writers who are paid by the word.)

You’ll Never Look or Feel Better

(…so why even bother to try our product?)

Using offensive language can irate the customer

(…almost as much as using an adjective instead of a verb!)

Seen any good typos lately? Send your favorites to Ask Elaine and I’ll compile them for a future column.

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