A colleague and I have a difference of opinion. I believe our department should be abbreviated as "L&D." She believes it should be "L & D," which just looks silly to me. I never see spaces used before and after an ampersand when the term is an abbreviation (two distinct words, yes, but an abbreviation, no), but I haven't been able to find a rule pertaining to this particular issue. Is there one?
4 Answers
In the case of "acronyms" such as R&D the spaces would normally be omitted, but where the surrounding elements are words (for example, Tate & Lyle), spaces are invariably present.
Here's a link to Marks and Spencer's small print, where they refer to themselves as both M&S and Marks & Spencer on the same web page.
Just to clarify a point arising in comments elsewhere, in the title of a guide to HTML & XHTML the spaces are expected - although both surrounding elements are acronyms in themselves, they do not form a new single acronym when conjoined with an ampersand.
Also note that although at least some style guides (incl. Chicago Manual of Style) explicitly rule against spaces in acronyms, as @nohat points out, they are only style guides - there is no absolute rule in play unless your commissioning editor requires adherence to such. For example, in the UK, hospital Accident and Emergency departments are invariably A & E (with spaces).
answered Aug 4, 2011 at 18:14
No spaces is most often used, and supported by style guides, except in special cases. For those who have access to CMOS online, here's a link to the section advocating this:
10.10: No space is left on either side of an ampersand used within an initialism. R&D. Texas A&M.
For those who don't, search the CMOS site for "ampersand initialism" to catch a glimpse of the rule. If the Thesaurus.com style guide is worth anything, it has the same idea.
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Definitely? Oh look here is a published book with spaces: oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003821– z7sg ѪCommented Aug 4, 2011 at 17:59
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5Obviously the form HTML&XHTML would be wrong because it's not an acronym - it's two acronyms. Commented Aug 4, 2011 at 18:40
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1That is exactly what I want: to argue with Chicago, because it is a guide not an authority. ;) @Fumble has a valid point here though.– z7sg ѪCommented Aug 4, 2011 at 19:34
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6Just to be clear, the Chicago Manual of Style is not some kind of official authority over the English language. Some publishers and organizations insist on written works following the rules in CMOS, but that is only a rule of those organizations, not a rule of the English language. There are examples of both styles being used in professionally published works, so if you are using CMOS style, yes there is a rule, but for the English language as a whole—which is the domain of discussion on this site—there is no rule, and either form is correct.– nohatCommented Aug 4, 2011 at 23:39
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@nohat: If you downvoted, would you consider removing the vote? I edited so that it's not definite.– DanielCommented Aug 5, 2011 at 0:57
Yes, "acronyms"/initialisms have no space. When the ampersand is used inline the spaces are present.
Bear in mind, the ampersand is a highly stylised rendering of the Latin "et" which means "and" (perhaps a scribal shortening). I have no doubt that once it was pronounced "et" rather than current "and". So inline it is a word, in acronyms, a symbol.
I share the same opinion with you Jennifer and the answers before me but I have another point which has nothing to do with English rules.
Logically, we use abbreviations or initials to minimize writing more letters. So, what is the point of adding new spaces before and after an ampersand? However, in case of full words we normally add spaces because the purpose of clarifying.
My argument is purely based on logic so I didn't take the effort to support it.
English Language & Usage.