amount/number
The word amount is used with things thought of in bulk (mass nouns). The word number is used with things that can be counted as individual items (count nouns).
Although the number of donors was large, the amount of money collected was not enough.
Avoid using amount when referring to countable items. I was surprised at the amount of errors in the report.
ampersand
The ampersand is the character (&) that stands for the word and. It is usually used only in the names of companies, agencies, and the like. In writing or in addresses, though, spell out and unless the ampersand is part of the official name of the organization.
Procter & Gamble
Johnson & Johnson
but Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Unless prohibited by a particular documentation style (as it is by MLA style), the ampersand is appropriate for footnotes, bibliographies, lists, and other contexts in which space is limited.
analogy
Analogy is a comparison between similar but unrelated objects or concepts to clarify, or emphasize particular qualities of, one of them. Analogies maybe brief or extended, depending on the writers purpose. In the following paragraph, the writer uses a surprising but effective analogy to convey the feeling of trying to land a tarpon.
The closest thing to a tarpon in the material world is the Steinway piano. The tarpon, of course, is a game fish that runs to extreme sizes, while the Steinway piano is merely an enormous musical instrument, largely wooden and manipulated by a series of keys. However, the tarpon when hooked and running reminds the angler of a piano sliding down a precipitous incline and while jumping makes cavities and explosions in the water not unlike a series of pianos falling from a great height. If the reader, then, can speculate in terms of pianos that herd and pursue mullet and are themselves shaped like exaggerated herrings, he will be a very long way toward seeing what kind of thing a tarpon is.
— Thomas McGuane, "The Longest Silence"
(For a discussion of false analogies, see logic.)
analysis as a method of development
Analysis takes a topic apart and examines or evaluates its parts to determine how they contribute to the quality of the whole. The following example analyzes the faint illumination that exists in the sky on even the darkest nights.
Although the night sky appears dark it is in fact subject to a faint illumination. This comprises the airglow - originating in the Earth's upper atmosphere; sunlight diffused through interplanetary space - sometimes termed zodiacal light, although this name is more frequently used for its more concentrated cones in the Ecliptic; galactic light—starlight diffused through interstellar space; and stellar light—direct light from faint stars invisible to the naked eye. The biggest contri bution is the stellar light, especially that from stars of about the twelfth magnitude, whose numbers more than make up for their faintness.
— Gilbert E. Satterthwaite, Encyclopedia of Astronomy
