Okay, grab your imaginary party hat. For three or more authors, MLA gets a little lazy—in the best way. You only use the first author’s last name, followed by “et al.” That’s Latin for “and others,” or as I like to call it, “and the gang.”
Picture this: You’ve got a study by Garcia, Patel, and O’Brien. In your citation, it becomes “Garcia et al.” Et al. rhymes with “set pal,” not “eat all.” Nobody wants to cite a hungry dinosaur.
So you’d write: “The study concludes that procrastination is basically a superpower (Garcia et al. 15).” Boom. You’ve just cited three people with one stroke of genius.
But Wait—What If I Name Them in My Sentence?
Great question! If you say, “Garcia, Patel, and O’Brien discovered procrastination powers,” you still use “et al.” in the parenthetical citation. Write: “Garcia, Patel, and O’Brien discovered procrastination powers (Garcia et al. 15).” Yes, it feels a little redundant. Welcome to academia—it’s like that sometimes.
