There are several common Latin abbreviations you discover in writing like, e.g., i.e., and Etc. Et Al. can be a Latin abbreviation that's commonly within academic documents, research papers, and bibliographies. If you have seen this abbreviation several times and also have been wondering how it really is used, this short article is for you personally. Our essay writing service writers invites you to learn about the Et Al. meaning, the correct punctuation, how to put it to use with different citation styles, etc .
What Does Et Al. Mean?
Et Al. is really a Latin term that means ‘Et alia. ’ et alia means ‘in addition, ’ or ‘and the others. ’ Directly translated, ‘et’ means ‘and’ and ‘alia’ means ‘others. ’ Normally, Et Al. can be used when you are stating a list of authors, and you usually do not want to mention all of them. This may either be because they are way too many or the style used has a set requirement on the number of authors you can mention. It should be noted that Et Al. should not be used in the place of one author. It always stands for at the least two more others. Listed here is an example:
Authors: John Watson, Sheldon Herbert, Kripke James, and Mary Catherine. (2009)
Citation example: Watson et al. (2009)
Using Et Al.: Correct Punctuation
Many rules direct the Et Al. usage, but first, you need to understand just how to punctuate the definition of itself. When punctuating Et Al., ‘et’ isn’t followed closely by a period, but ‘al’ is obviously followed by a period of time. This is because ‘et’ isn’t an abbreviation but a complete Latin word while ‘al’ is the abbreviation of ‘alia. ’
This is a representation of the correct and wrong punctuation of Et Al.
Wrong: Et. al.; Et. al; Et al
Right: Et al.
Form punctuation of the term it self, there are some other punctuation rules for before and following the expression.
- When using Et Al. in a sentence, if it comes by the end of the sentence, you certainly do not need an extra period. For example:
Each Greek god had its powers, as shown by Watson et al.
- You could add a comma after the period that uses the Et Al. if the sentence is continuing. For example:
(Watson et al., 2009)
- You can use a comma before Et Al. if you use the Oxford comma. The Oxford comma is a pre-conjunction comma used when the list has significantly more than two items. For example:
If you work with the Oxford comma, the citation is:
Watson, Herbert, et al.
If you're not utilizing the Oxford comma, the citation becomes:
Watson, Herbert et al.
Et Al. vs. Etc.
Etc. is another Latin term that's an abbreviation of et cetera, which may be translated to mean and the rest. Exactly like et alia, it really is used once the writer will not want to mention everything. But there is one crucial huge difference between Etc. and Et Al. Etc. can be used when the extra items are things, concepts, or some ideas, not people. Here is a good example of the two for further clarification:
Ian bought mangoes, bananas, carrots, etc . from the market.
Men in that period ate fruits and roots, according to Jane et al.
Et Al. and Ambiguity
Periodically the documents being referenced have some similar authors. When writing citations for such documents, you might end up having ambiguous references. You may need to include authors until where the references could be differentiated. Here's an example for further clarification:
You want to reference two books:
Pi by John Watson, Sheldon Herbert, Kripke James and Mary Catherine (2009)
Qi by John Watson, Sheldon Herbert, Maryann Jameson, George Anderson, and Joyce Smith (2009)
In the event that you write the citation as Watson et al. 2009, the reader will not know which book you are talking about. In this case, you may write the citations as:
Watson, Herbert, James, and Catherine (2009)
Watson, Herbert, Jameson et al. (2009)
The reason why the first citation does not have Et Al. is that after writing the 3rd differentiating author, there is only 1 author left, and as was mentioned earlier in the day, Et Al. has to stand for at least two authors.