A to Z Challenge 2014: A is for Ampersands. Right or Wrong?

A to Z Challenge: Oh Heck! Quirky Errors in Writing

Pretty, aren’t they? Ampersands can be artsy and fanciful depending on the fonts you use and the purpose you have in mind.

But beauty aside, how useful are they? And why do I call the use of ampersands  a quirky error in writing?

Ampersands are twisty little symbols that look somewhat like the salty pretzels (Auntie Annie’s Ampersands?) that you buy at the mall.

The ampersand is shorthand for the word “and.” Blame this funny little symbol on the Roman scribes of the first century AD who chiseled lofty inscriptions on their blocks of marble, joining two letters to save a bit of room on their fine craftmanship. After all, you wouldn’t want to shortchange an emperor would you? The consequences could be deadly!

Despite its noble and historic beginnings, the ampersand  has persisted through the centuries to modern times even though we rarely write on marble these days.

Today the ampersand has its friends and foes, each arguing eloquently for why or why it shouldn’t be used in writing. That little mark has blogs, books, and websites dedicated to it. Who would have guessed that this little squiggly would have such power?

Well, friends and foes of the ampersand, there are times to use the ampersand correctly and times when it should not be used at all.

Now the ampersand is fine on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest;  in thank-you notes to your mom or loaded missiles to your significant other; on attention-getting T-shirts and tattoos on your pecs and abs; and even on the doodles you draw in the margins of your notebook in your boring stimulating English class. But, please, don’t use ampersands in more formal writing of term papers, journal or newsletter articles, or fiction or non-fiction books.

Being a picky newsletter editor, I get irritated when I see the ampersand in articles repeatedly substituted for the perfectly fine “and.” Why bother to reach up and hit shift and the number 7 key to type an ampersand (&) when you could type the word and just as quickly and be done with it.

Yet, to be fair, there are times when the ampersand may be desired and even required!
1.  On book titles:
**  Marty & Me,
**  Eats, Shoots & Leaves,
**  Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers
**  The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent the Eager, & the Doomed

And now a book whose characters are influenced by the ampersand:
**   & Sons, by a novel by David Gilbert about a reclusive writer who wrote a YA novel called Ampersand. (It’s a bit tricky doing a search on a book title that begins with an ampersand! Hint: Put in the author’s name and the title.)
2. On movie titles:
**  “The Truth about Cats & Dogs”
**  “Fast and Furious”
**  “Batman & Robin”
3. On the legal name of companies:
**  AT&T,    Johnson & Johnson,   New Haven & Hartford Railroad, Ben & Jerry’s, Barnes & Noble
4. On names of clubs and institutions:
**  Texas A&M, Boys & Girls Club of America
5. On movie credits where the use of the ampersand attempts to show levels of input each scriptwriter has had in the development of the screenplay. Look for it in the credits the next time you go to the movies.
6. In bibliographies in cases where the & is part of the official title or publisher’s name (as in the examples above).
7. In trendy graphics designs. (Trend-setters can get away with almost anything. Let them have their fun!)

Hungry now? How about a nice salty pretzel ampersand? Mustard or cheese with that ampersand?

 

Your turn:  What quirky errors do you find in writing? Which ones annoy you the most?

=<^&^>=
Janice Hall Heck is a retired educator and now nitpicky editor of On the Horizon, a bi-monthly community newsletter for Horizons at Woods Landing, Mays Landing, NJ.

A to Z Challenge, 2014: Oh, Heck! Another Quirky Writing Error

April has been called the “cruellest month,” (T.S.Eliot) but I can’t agree with that. First of all, it is my birthday month (30 days of presents!), the month where spring actually warms up my home state (NJ), and the month where crocuses and daffodils fight the dregs of the cold winter by pushing up through the crusty ground.   And every April a new A to Z Challenge comes along. Being a person who can never pass up a good challenge, I have awakened my blog from its winter doldrums to announce my participation in the 2014 A to Z Challenge. The A to Z Challenge asks participants to write 26 posts in the month of April, one for each day of the week, Sundays off. The fun is in reading all the other great blog posts written by more than 1600 bloggers in this challenge.

My Theme for A to Z 2014:    Oh, Heck! Another Quirky Writing Error (WR)

I edit a bi-monthly community newsletter entitled On the Horizon, the official newsletter of Horizons at Woods Landing, Mays Landing, New Jersey, a 55+ community. While On the Horizon is just a little community rag, the newsletter committee endeavors to produce an error-free publication. Errors, however, being as devilish as they are, occasionally creep into our pages while we are not looking. Even so, we manage to trash the most egregious ones before the newsletter goes to press. I will pick on some of these quirky errors for this blog challenge.

My first blog post for the 2014 A to Z will be “A is for Ampersands. Right or Wrong?”

Can these cute little guys cause problems in writing? You betcha.

Ampersands? Yes. Ampersands can be used correctly, but they also can be used incorrectly. Read my first post on April 1 to see the difference. The Last Meow As always, my kitties will sometimes fuss about me always stealing the show, so they may demand to write a post now and then. I like to humor them, so I give in once in a while. Spoiled brats! Right now they are negotiating for the letter C. I can’t imagine what they want to write about. (See a CatFurDay Commentary here for a sample of their wit.)

NO, the blog-fame does not go to my head. It’s just sunny out. Okay? And I am NOT a spoiled brat, so there, Missy Jan!

Meow for now. =<^&^>= Sign up for 2014 A to Z Challenge here: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2014.html

See more info on A to Z 2014 at: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2014.html#sthash.vJ462t2y.dpuf