Bill D., a schwa is an upside down e, not an @, at least as I recall it from my linguistic studies in college. It's the phonetic symbol for the "uh" sound as in butt--and for most unaccented vowels in English, e.g., the first and final syllable os in the word conception [the i combining with the t to form the sh sound] (for the edification of those of you without the benefit of vast stores of useless information).

--seed (dropping in especially for the opportunity to act the pedantic ass)