LibAnswers: MLA FAQs

According to the MLA Handbook 9th edition, if you're citing more than one author with the same last name, you can differentiate between them by adding the first initial of the author's first name at the beginning of the parenthetical in-text citation. If somehow, authors also share the same first initial, you can differentiate them by full first name in the in-text citation.

In order to eliminate confusion, always use the authors' first and last names in the prose, even after the first mention(234).

The examples are provided by the MLA Handbook (235), to show the format of what this looks like:

Parenthetical citation:

Reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing"(N. Baron 194).

Works Cited:

Baron, Naomi S. "Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media." PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-200

If the two authors were to have the same first initial, your parenthetical citation would look like this: (Naomi Baron 194)

Your Works Cited entry would be formatted the same way as normal, with last name first.

For more information:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_in_text_citations_the_basics.html

Works Cited

MLA Handbook. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.