Think of your two authors as the perfect duo, like peanut butter and jelly. In MLA, you always connect them with the word “and.” Not an ampersand (&), not a comma alone—just the plain, friendly English word “and.”
Imagine you’re reading a hilarious book by your two funniest professors, Smith and Jones. In your paper, you’d write: “As Smith and Jones argue, coffee is the true fuel of academia.” See? Simple. You don’t say “Smith & Jones,” unless you’re writing a text to your mom. Keep it “and” for MLA.
A Quick Chat With Your Works Cited Page
Your Works Cited page is where the real magic happens, but it’s still just a recipe. For two authors, you list them in the order they appear on the book’s cover. The first author gets their last name first, followed by their first name. Then you add a comma and the word “and,” followed by the second author’s first name then last name.
Let’s do it with our imaginary coffee book. It would look like this: Smith, John, and Jane Jones. Notice the period after the second author’s name? That’s the closing handshake. Then you just continue with the book’s title, publisher, and year.
