When citing a source with two authors in MLA style, you connect their last names with “and” in the in-text citation and list both names in the Works Cited entry, with only the first author’s name inverted. The rules are straightforward once you see them in action, and they apply to parenthetical citations, signal phrases, and your bibliography.
In-Text Citations With Two Authors
MLA gives you two ways to cite sources in the body of your paper: parenthetical citations and signal phrases. Both follow the same core rule for two authors: include both last names joined by “and,” followed by the page number.
A parenthetical citation places both names and the page number inside parentheses at the end of the sentence:
- The authors claim that surface reading looks at what is “evident, perceptible, apprehensible in texts” (Best and Marcus 9).
A signal phrase weaves the authors’ names into your sentence, leaving only the page number in parentheses:
- Best and Marcus argue that one should read a text for what it says on its surface, rather than looking for some hidden meaning (9).
If the source has no page numbers (a website, for example), drop the number and include only the two last names. If the source uses paragraph numbers instead, use “par.” or “pars.” in place of a page number.
The Works Cited Entry
On your Works Cited page, list both authors in the order they appear on the source itself. The first author’s name is inverted (last name, first name), while the second author’s name stays in normal order (first name last name). Connect them with “and.”
For a book, the entry looks like this:
- Best, Stephen, and Sharon Marcus. The Way We Read Now. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
The same pattern applies to journal articles, web pages, and any other source type. Only the first author’s name gets flipped because that inversion is what determines alphabetical placement in your Works Cited list.
When Both Authors Share a Last Name
If the two authors you are citing happen to share the same surname, your in-text citation needs to include first initials along with last names so the reader can tell them apart. If their first initials are also the same, spell out the full first name. This rule applies whenever you reference either author in your prose, not just inside parentheses.
For example, if you are discussing work by Robert Smith and Karen Smith, your citation would read (R. Smith and K. Smith 42) rather than just (Smith and Smith 42).
Citing Multiple Works by the Same Two Authors
If you cite more than one source written by the same pair of authors, you need to help the reader distinguish between them. Add a shortened version of the title to your in-text citation:
- (Best and Marcus, “Surface Reading” 9)
On the Works Cited page, list each work as a separate entry. If the authors’ names appear in the same order on both sources, replace the names with three hyphens followed by a period for every entry after the first:
- Best, Stephen, and Sharon Marcus. The Way We Read Now. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
- —. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations, vol. 108, no. 1, 2009, pp. 1-21.
However, if the author order differs between works, even with the same two people, you cannot use the three-hyphen shortcut. Each entry must spell out both names in full because MLA treats a different ordering as a distinct authorship configuration.
Two Authors vs. Three or More
These rules apply only when a source has exactly two authors. Once a source has three or more authors, MLA style changes: you list only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”) both in-text and on the Works Cited page. So a three-author source would appear as (Taylor et al. 75) in your text and begin with “Taylor, Sandy, et al.” in the bibliography. The two-author format, where you name both people every time, is unique to sources with precisely two contributors.