How to write ampersands by hand

August 10, 2008 11:56 PM

What's the proper way to write ampersands ("&") by hand?

Kind of trivial question, but was wondering: what's the proper way to write ampersands, from the bottom-up or top-to-bottom? I know this used to be taught in schools along with the alphabet; what would they have said? Or was there no real consensus?

posted by dicetumbler to writing & language (25 comments total)

bottom to top.
posted by parkerama at 12:09 AM on August 11, 2008

I write them:
Starting at the bottom right corner, make a line up and to the left, turn right 270° to cross the line about a third of the way down, then make a 180° turn to cross the line again another third of the way down. Pretty conventional.
Those, however, who use a "+" sign or who like Kottke cross an uppercase E are wrong, wrong, wrong.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 12:14 AM on August 11, 2008

I write a reversed 3 with a dash through it, from top to bottom twice.

or, in direct contradiction of fiasco de gama, it's my own damn 'font', I'll do what I please (as long as it's legible and comprehensible)!
posted by wilful at 12:27 AM on August 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

I do three kinds: an 'E' with a vertical stroke like wilful's, a small plus sign with a loop from the bottom on the left, and an actual ampersand that I write by doing a backward "S" with a diagonal slash (also works for treble clefs) .
posted by rhizome at 12:37 AM on August 11, 2008

It might be comprehensible, wilful, but it's not an ampersand. It's a character standing in for an ampersand, much as text-speak uses numerals.
Were I to receive a text message with the characters CU L8R or some such abomination, I'd respond saying that that was comprehensible, but incorrect. An ampersand has to be recognisably an ampersand outside of its context in a sentence, IMO.
For this reason and others all of my friends take the trouble to text me using fully spelled words
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 12:40 AM on August 11, 2008

Fiasco da Gama - so instead of "&" they write "et"? ;-)
posted by trig at 12:47 AM on August 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

It is an ampersand fiasco, it's merely not THIS '&'.

Just a different font.
posted by wilful at 12:47 AM on August 11, 2008

When writing an ampersand (as such) usually do more-or-less what Flasco said. But this usually turns out looking wobbly and crappy, so most of the time I do a "plus sign without lifting the pen resulting in the bottom point and left point being connected" thing instead.

For Flasco: almost anything I write by hand is either for personal consumption or for my close family and friends, so I employ shorthand (not text speak) whenever it is convenient. If I were to hand write something for public consumption for some reason, I would most likely just write "and."
posted by paisley henosis at 12:48 AM on August 11, 2008

Fiasco, AIUI it's derived from the same symbol— it's an abbreviation for the Latin "et". (I've even seen people who handwrite it as a reversed-3 with vertical stroke and a right-pointing hook on the bottom of the stroke, as you might put on a letter "t".) A double-bowl "g" and a single-bowl "g" look pretty different too.

I handwrite ampersands starting at the right, going down-and-to-the-left, curving up and around to make the loop and then down and to the right. I don't put in the horizontal bar when I'm handwriting.

Were ampersands taught to the same degree other letterforms were? AIUI they're slightly informal. I was taught the "proper" way to write letters in school, but just the alphabet and numerals, not any of the common abbreviations.
posted by hattifattener at 12:57 AM on August 11, 2008

Pictures.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 1:01 AM on August 11, 2008 [2 favorites]

Pretty: straight stroke from top to bottom and curvy part from top to bottom.
Quick: curvy 'E' then a line through it. sometimes the line is just on the top and bottom and not all the way through.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:31 AM on August 11, 2008

I write it in one stroke, bottom right to top left, around, cross, curve back, and cross again.

This calligraphy book lists twenty-three different types of ampersand, and aside from the variants that put a cross-bar on the top right side they all look like they're made in one motion. The book says that it "has no single standard form". How much that translates to school handwriting lessons I don't know.
posted by Paragon at 3:21 AM on August 11, 2008

Pictures.

Thanks for that; from now on I think this is how I will write an ampersand. Only less embellished.
posted by paisley henosis at 3:42 AM on August 11, 2008

Ampersands are the Latin abbreviations for the word and--which is et (ergo, Et Cetera = &c).

Mine looks like this one because it's the easiest to write clearly when in a hurry and it preserves the concept.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:58 AM on August 11, 2008

Definitely not taught in San Francisco or Seattle public schools in the 1970s - we weren't allowed to use them in our school writing! Abbreviations, symbols, etc. were frowned upon and our stuffy English teachers would have crossed them out in red ink, written out "AND" and given us points off.

Rebel that I was, I thought the ampersand was just about the coolest thing ever to write, ad did so a la Fiasco da Gama above.
posted by chez shoes at 5:07 AM on August 11, 2008

I would think it is more difficult to write the E with the slash through it rather than the & because you have to lift the pen/pencil for the stroke.

To the OP, I was always taught bottom to top.
posted by JJ86 at 6:18 AM on August 11, 2008

It is, JJ6, which is why I write my alternate-ampersand in one stroke, like kottke's silkscreen font linked to above. Starting from the top: a short line down, then a backwards 3, then the bottom bit. No lifting required.
posted by cabingirl at 6:34 AM on August 11, 2008

Learnt mine doing propositional/predicate calculus. I do it like Fiasco, only the other way (ie loop down to the left and up, straight up to top right, loop left and down, straight down and right to cross the first line. I always assumed this was how everybody did them.
posted by Phanx at 7:15 AM on August 11, 2008

I start with something like a backwards slash from the lower right, turning into something like an eight for the two loops (but done in the reverse rotation of how I actually do eights), ending with a left-then-right horizontal line like a G.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 7:24 AM on August 11, 2008

Related: The Ampersand, a blog about ampersands.
posted by danb at 8:14 AM on August 11, 2008

I don't believe there's a right way to do them. When I am writing that style of ampersand, I start at the bottom right, (unless I'm writing it upside-down as the linear logic "par" symbol (and thus start at the top left), ending with the "t" part of the "Et", but I don't think of that as more correct than any other way.
posted by ErWenn at 8:42 AM on August 11, 2008

Late to the party, but better late than never. I find this curious: I've always made them as fiasco described, starting in the lower right and doing all the loops and ending up just above where I started. But growing up my mum always used the backwards three with a line looking one. She is an RN, and I always assumed it was some kind of professional shorthand. I did mine my way just because that's what it looked like in text and it is easy and fun. Thinking back, she always used to write "with" as a "c" with a line over it as well. Does anyone know what that's about? I'm partial to "w/" myself.
posted by indiebass at 10:54 AM on August 11, 2008

she always used to write "with" as a "c" with a line over it as well
That's the medical abbreviation for "with" derived from the Latin cum. I think the bar is there to prevent confusion/mistakes with any other abbreviations beginning with "c" like "cc". Can't tell you why it's used instead of "w/" though.
posted by junesix at 11:14 AM on August 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

I do an actual ampersand, like how Fiasco described earlier in this thread. It didn't take much practice, and I like how they look.
posted by booth at 5:19 PM on August 11, 2008

I do the plus with the loop. It might not be an ampersand but it'll do pig.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 1:57 AM on August 14, 2008