What if the three authors are from a strange journal with no page numbers? No problem! Just skip the page number in the parentheses. Do: (Smith, Jones, and Brown).
MLA in text citations
What if two authors have the same last name? Like Smith, Smith, and Smith? You write their first initials if needed. But honestly, just laugh and use their full first names.
If the third author is actually a company or a website, treat it like a normal name. Example: (Doe, Tanaka, and World Health Organization). Yes, you can cite a giant organization as a person. It feels powerful.
Why This is Actually Fun (I’m Serious)
Citing three authors is like learning a secret handshake. You now know the exact sequence of punctuation that makes professors nod in approval.
It’s a tiny puzzle you get to solve every time you write a paper. And when you nail it, that little Works Cited entry looks beautiful. Like a perfectly aligned row of dominos.
Plus, you get to say “and” three times in one sentence without sounding weird. That’s a linguistic flex.
