Three or More Authors

Sources With Three or More Authors

There are a number of sources written or created by three or more authors. Many research studies and reports, scholarly journal articles, and government publications are developed by three or more individuals.

If you included the last names of all individuals in your narrative MLA in-text citations or in parentheses, it would be too distracting to the reader. It may also cause the reader to lose sight of the overall message of the paper or assignment. Instead of including all last names, only include the last name of the first individual shown on the source. Follow the first author’s last name with the Latin phrase, “et al.” This Latin phrase translates to “and others.” Add the page number after et al.

Here’s a parenthetical citation MLA example for multiple authors:

“School library programs in Croatia and Hong Kong are mainly focused on two major educational tasks. One task is enhancing students’ general literacy and developing reading habits, whereas the other task is developing students’ information literacy and research abilities” (Tam et al. 299).

The example above only includes the first listed author’s last name. All other authors are credited when “et al.” is used. If the reader wants to see the other authors’ full names, the reader can refer to the final references at the end of the assignment.

The abbreviation et al. is used with references in parentheses, as well as in full references. To include the authors’ names narratively in the in-text citation MLA sentence, you can either write each name out individually or, you can type out the meaning of et al., which is “and others.”

Here is an acceptable narrative MLA in-text citation example for sources with more than three authors:

School library programming in Croatia and Hong Kong is somewhat similar to programming in the United States. Tam, Choi, Tkalcevic, Dukic, and Zheng share that “school library programs in Croatia and Hong Kong are mainly focused on two major educational tasks. One task is enhancing students’ general literacy and developing reading habits, whereas the other task is developing students’ information literacy and research abilities” (299).

If your instructor’s examples of how to do in-text citations MLA for three or more authors looks different than the example here, your instructor may be using an older edition of this style. To discover more about previous editions, learn more here.

Need some inspiration for your research project? Trying to figure out the perfect topic? Check out our Dr. Suess, Marilyn Monroe, and Malcolm X topic guides!

Work Cited

Staff, EasyBib. “MLA In-Text Citation & Parenthetical Guide.” EasyBib, Chegg, 1 Jan. 2019, www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-format/how-to-cite-a-parenthetical-citations-mla/.