How To Use “Et Al.” In Academic Writing

f you think that the abbreviation “et al.” doesn’t even sound like English, you’re right. It’s not English, but Latin. Latin terms are often used in English writing, especially academic writing. “et al.” is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase “et alia.” “Et alia” literally translated means “and others.” “Et al.” is therefore most frequently used to indicate multiple authors of a cited work.

1. What Does “et al.” Mean? “et al.” is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase “et alia.” “Et alia” literally translated means “and others.” “Et al.” is therefore most frequently used to indicate multiple authors of a cited work. “Et al.” has some strong similarities to other Latin abbreviations, namely “etc.” “Etc.” is an abbreviation of another Latin phrase “et cetera.” “Et al.” and “etc.” are easily confused because “etc.” also means “and others.” “Et al.” is used for people, while “etc.” is used for things or animals.

2. How Do I Use “et al.” in APA Style Citation? Each citation style uses “et al.” a bit differently. In the 7th edition of APA citation, any work with one or two authors should use the names of all authors in the in-text citation. If a work has three or more authors, “et al.” should be used after the name of the first author in the in-text citation, unless doing so would cause confusion. When listing the article in the References section of the paper, all authors are listed unless there are more than 20 authors.

3. How Do I Use “et al.” in MLA Style Citation? Like APA, MLA uses in-text citations. We use “et al.” in MLA in-text citations when there are three or more authors, just like APA style. However, unlike APA citation, we also use “et al.” in the Works Cited section when there are three or more authors. You will note that there is no real difference between in-text citations using “et al.” with regard to APA and MLA.

4. How Do I Use “et al.” in Chicago Style Citation? There are two different ways to cite sources in a Chicago style paper: author-date or footnotes. However, the way we use “et al.” will not change regardless of whether we are using author-date or footnote citations. The way that “et al.” is used in the reference list or bibliography also stays the same. In Chicago style, we use “et al.” only when there are four or more authors. List the first author and then write ““et al.”

5. Common Mistakes to Watch Out for The most common error in using “et al.” besides citation style is punctuation. There is a period only after “al” in “et al.,” and additional punctuation such as a comma should follow that period. There is no period after “et.” X et al X et. al. X et. al ✔ et al.

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