Why to avoid ampersands (&) in formal writing
What would you think of an author who wrote like this:
Build a Better Business Book is the first accessible & comprehensive guide for authors who want to create impact. Learn how to refine your idea, choose a publishing model, & research, write, publish, & promote a book that matters. Includes advice on how to collect & write case studies, plan your book as a project, structure compelling chapters, & launch your book to maximize your sales, revenue, and influence.
The text reads normally normal, but the whole passage seems a bit weird and old-timey because of the ampersands. We all know that the ampersand character means “and,” but it draws attention to itself in prose as the only word that can be replaced by a special character.
Writers I edit rarely drop ampersands randomly into prose like this, but the temptation is greater in headings. A 12,000 word proposal I recently edited included 14 ampersands, including these in headings:
- Professional PR & Marketing
- Print & Online Media
- Measure & Reinforce Experience
- Empower & Enable Employees
- Rules & Process Changes
- Feedback & Enablement
The problem here is consistency: why is “and” shown as “&” in some headings and not in others? And why is it used in headings and not in text? Each “&” makes the reader stop and think, “Why is this symbol here?” when they should be paying attention to the content, not the use of symbols.
When it makes sense to use an ampersand
These are the only places where an ampersand should appear in books, essays, or other normal prose:
- In rendering of names that include an ampersand. For example, “Procter & Gamble,” “Johnson & Johnson,” and “McKinsey & Company.”
- In some job titles, like “Manager, Legal & Regulatory Affairs.”
- In tables or charts where you want to emphasize that the combined elements are to be considered as one. For example, financial results tables often list spending on “Marketing & Sales,” “R&D” (research & development), and “G&A” (general & administrative expenses). A diagram might shows five elements: people, funding, product, market, and environmental & regulatory issues. The “&” in “environment & regulatory” emphasizes that it’s to be considered a unit on par with the other four elements.
Anywhere else you use an ampersand, it will seem weird — especially if you’re inconsistent, using “and” in some places and “&” in others that are basically similar.
If you’re living in the 18th century you get a pass. Also if you work at Google on the mobile OS &roid. Otherwise, give us a break and just spell out “and.”
It’s OK to use an ampersand to clarify that a compound element in a series is to read as one element:
“For breakfast, she had orange juice, bacon & eggs, and coffee.”
Yes, I know that you could use semicolons instead:
“For breakfast, she had orange juice; bacon and eggs; and coffee.”
Or you could shuffle the elements to make semicolons less essential:
“For breakfast, she had orange juice, coffee, and bacon and eggs.”
But these alternatives come at a cost. If you use semicolons, you’re creating a heavier pause than you intended. And if you move “bacon and eggs” to the final position, it can read as though it’s less important or consumed last.
There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.
I reviewed a self-published parenting advice book in which the author substituted an ampersand for the word and throughout the entire book just because he felt like it. (He said so in the intro/preface!) Just for yuks, I did the same in the review I submitted, but they published it with and spelled out.