Appendix A: Referring to Authors and Titles
Writing in an academic context often entails writing about or responding to the words and ideas of other authors. Academic writing is often a “dialogue” or conversation between scholars. Scholarly research generally builds on or reacts to the work of previous scholars. As student writers, you often use the works of published scholars to support your arguments or provide a framework for your analysis. When you do this, you must cite and document your source; you may also need to identify the author and title that you are referring to. There are some basic conventions (rules) to adhere to when you do this.
Referring to Authors
The first time that you mention the author, use the full name (but no titles, such as Mr. Ms, or Dr.). If there are more than three authors, use the Latin abbreviated term et al. to refer to additional authors:
- William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in 1601.
- Sean Petty and Justin Trudeau[1] argue that …
- Ross Phillips et al. recommend that….
Every time you refer to the author after the first time, use the last name only. Never refer to the author by the first name (William or Will) only. Always use the last name:
- Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most studied plays.
- Petty and Trudeau go on to describe the effects of …
- Phillips et al. suggest that….
The following H5P interaction will help you practice how to refer to authors in your writing. There are two multiple choice and two fill-in-the-blank questions. Remember to read the statements carefully.
H5P: Referring to Authors
- You want to reference a quotation from Dr. David Suzuki’s The Big Picture, you would:
- Refer to him as David throughout the entire essay
- Refer to him as Dr. David Suzuki and Suzuki each time after that
- Refer to him as David Suzuki the first time and Suzuki each time after that.
- Fill in the missing words: You’re writing a summary of Maya Angelou’s 1969 book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for your literature class. How would you format her name the first time you use it. (1969).
- The article you are using has four authors listed in this order, Frank Smith, Karandeep Singh, Ashley Carson, and Nico Lorenzo. The first time you mention the authors, it would look like this:
- Frank Smith, Karandeep Singh, Ashley Carson, and Nico Lorenzo (2018)
- Smith, Singh, Carson, and Lorenzo (2018)
- Frank Smith et al. (2018)
- F. Smith, K. Singh, A. Carson, and N. Lorenzo (2018)
- A. Carson, N. Lorenzo, K. Singh, and F. Smith (2018)
- Fill in the missing words: How would you list the authors of the Handbook of Technical Writing who are Charles Brusaw, Gerald Alred, and Walter Oliu for the first time?
(2020)
Referring to Titles
When referring to titles, there are two distinct methods to indicate two types of works:
- The titles of shorter works that are published within a larger work (an article in a newspaper, an academic article in a periodical, a poem in an anthology, a chapter in a book) are enclosed in quotation m