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The Ultimate “Et Al.” Guide

The Ultimate “Et Al.” Guide

Jan 15, 2021

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.

  1. 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.

  1. You could add a comma after the period that uses the Et Al. if the sentence is continuing. For example:

(Watson et al., 2009)

  1. 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.

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Et Al. in APA Style

Different citation styles have different rules for writing the in-text citations and bibliography.

When writing in-text citations in APA format, here are the guidelines:

  1. If the text has one or two authors, you will mention them utilizing their last names in the in-text citation as follows:

(Tribianni, 2016)

(Charles & Evans, 2015)

  1. If the text is authored by more than two authors, mention the last name of the first author Et Al. as follows:

(Watson et al., 2009)

  1. In previous versions of APA, if three to five people wrote the cited work, you listed their last names in the first citation then just the first author in the consequent citations. An example is really as follows:

1st citation: (Watson, Herbert, Jameson, Anderson & Smith, 2009)

Subsequent citations: (Watson et al., 2009)

In APA format, the Et Al. usage in the reference list is not allowed. If the job has significantly more than seven authors, you list the first six, add an ellipse, then list the last name as shown below:

John W., Mary K.., Susan J., Evans M., Kevin T., Peter W., … Hendricks O.

Et Al. in APA 7th Edition

A few things have changed in the 7th edition of APA format:

  1. You don’t list all the authors in the very first citation unless the work has only two authors.
  2. You are able to list as much as 20 authors in the reference list. If how many authors exceeds 20, write the first 19, add an ellipse, then write the last author.

Et Al. in MLA Style

In MLA format, you use Et Al. both in the in-text citations and the works cited list. You employ it if the number of authors exceeds three. Here is a typical example of an MLA in-text citation and reference in the works cited:

In-text citation: (Watson, 15)

Works cited reference: Watson et al. Pi. 2009.

Et Al. in Chicago Style

Chicago style is just a little distinctive from the two styles above because writers may use footnotes, references, or in-text citations. In the Chicago Manual, you employ Et Al. for works which have four or maybe more authors. You employ a footnote if work does not have a bibliography at the conclusion. Here is how the citations will appear like in each case when they do have more than three authors:

  1. If writing in-text citations, here's how they will appear to be:

(Watson et al., 2009, 21-22)

  1. When writing footnotes:

1st mention: Watson et al., Pi (2009), 20-21

Subsequent mentions: Watson et al., Pi, 30-33

  1. When writing the bibliography:

Watson, John. Et al., Pi. 2009

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Et Al. in Harvard Style

When citing utilizing the Harvard style, you use Et Al. if the work has more than three authors. The same as with one other styles, you employ the last name of the first author, followed by Et Al. Also if you are interesting in Harvard Style writings you can visit essay services searching in internet them like: "pay someone to write my essay".

A typical example of a Harvard citation could be:

(Singh et al. 2015)

Et alibi - Another Et Al.

Et Al. can also, in some cases, stand for Et alibi. An alibi is usually used in criminal investigations. It typically describes where a suspect was at the time of the crime and is used as evidence to get rid of them from the suspect list. When Et Al. is used to mean Et alibi, it could be translated to mean ‘and elsewhere. ’ Where Etc. means things or ideas, and et alia refers to people, Et alibi refers to locations.

Like you as well as your friends went for a tour around Kenya and so are listing places you visited. Instead of mentioning all the places you visited, you can mention some of them adding Et Al. Here is an example:

We went to Maasai Mara, Fort Jesus, Nairobi National Park, et al. to look at Kenyan wildlife and major landmarks.

Et alibi could also be used to make reference to locations that aren’t physical. Look at this example:

The writer uses Swahili words (page 21 et al. ) throughout the book.

In this example, the writer is discussing places in the book.

How to Use Et Al. – Guidelines

When you're writing work using references, our write my paper service team recommends always citing your sources to avoid plagiarizing their work. In this case, you're using et al. formally and have to understand what referencing style is necessary for your paper. You can also use et al. informally, like in an email.

Using Et Al. Formally

Class assignments, research reports, and dissertations are examples of formal documents by which you would use Et Al. Besides mentioning authors, you could use Et Al. once you don’t desire to mention all of the characters. Here's an example of how exactly to write Et Al. in both cases:

Using Et Al. With Authors

If Jim Antony, Jesse Kingsley, Jude Green, Sarah Hope, and Adam Groff write a book titled Ancient Gods of Greece, they may be mentioned as followed:

Antony et al. researched the various gods the ancient Greeks believed in.

Whether you are writing your graduate thesis or an exemplification essay for one of your units, using Et Al. could save you the trouble of writing out most of the authors of the sources you are referencing or you can observe examples of writing in Buy essay services.

Using Et Al. With Characters

You may be writing a book summary for Harry Potter. You can write the next sentence:

Harry Potter et al. joined forces to fight That he Who Should not be Named.

Using Et Al. Informally

Though not very common, you can use Et Al. informally in some situations. For example , if you should be writing a message talking about a small grouping of friends or coworkers, you could substitute a number of their names for Et Al. if the list is too much time and tedious to type out. For instance:

Jenifer, Agnes et al. visited the museum over the week-end to learn about fossils.

When Not To Use Et Al.

There are some situations where using Et al. might be inappropriate or misunderstood. Listed here are two such situations explained by our write my essay service writers:

In Everyday Speech

When talking to friends and family or your coworkers, it could not be correct to utilize Et Al. Example:

In place of say ‘Joy et al. went swimming in their neighbor’s pool. ’ say, ‘Joy and her friends went swimming in her neighbor’s pool. ’

When you need to avoid mentioning everyone, substitute Et Al. with everyday words like ‘and others’ or ‘and the others. ’

When Writing a Salutation

Whenever starting a letter or an email that's directed to many people, usually do not use Et Al. in the salutation. For example:

Use: Greetings, or hello everyone

Don’t use: Dear Eunice et al.

To sum up

In this guide, you discovered about using et al. You now realize that Et al. is really a Latin term, an abbreviation for et alia, this means ‘and the others. ’ You have also seen that some rules govern et al. usage. You have seen how different referencing styles utilize it in their in-text citations and bibliographies. Et al. is a good abbreviation as it saves you the tedious task of getting to list down most of the people who you wish to mention. To achieve a deeper understanding of just how to use Et al., you are able to look for additional information online with Custom essay writings examples and further guidelines on how to do it.

If all this appears like a lot of work, you can always Order an Essay and sit back and relax as competent writers write and cite for you personally.

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