You may not be familiar with the word “ampersand”, but you probably see this symbol multiple times every day in place of “and”. Here are some examples: I need the documents from 2019 & 2020. Juan is bringing pizza & beer to the party. We’re having a meeting with Margo & her team. His book will be published by Simon & Schuster. The first three sentences are fine for a casual email or text message. However, an ampersand is generally not appropriate for academic papers or formal messages. It also doesn’t work for longer pieces of writing, as the symbol disrupts the flow of the text. One major exception is when the ampersand is part of the name of a business, firm, or brand, as is the case with Simon & Schuster in the fourth example above. If you see an ampersand in a company’s official communications, then you should use it. To put it another way, if a law firm’s official letterhead or website says Jackson & Jackson, then that is the way you should write ...