Think of an in-text citation like telling your friend about that amazing pizza you ordered. If just you and your roommate ate it, you say, “We loved the pepperoni.” That’s two authors—easy.
But if you ordered with a big group? You’d say, “My whole book club devoured it.” In MLA land, that’s the same logic for three or more authors. You just write the first author’s name plus “et al.” (Latin for “and others”).
So instead of “(Smith, Jones, Patel, and O’Brien 45),” you write “(Smith et al. 45).” Simple as that. You’ve just saved three names worth of mental energy for the good stuff—like your conclusion.
