et al. and etc.
How to use the abbreviation etc. correctly was discussed in a previous entry on the Thammasat University Libraries blog. Since most Thai students and ajarns do not study Latin, problems may arise when they choose to use abbreviations for Latin words. These abbreviations may seem to look serious, professional, and scholarly. Yet they are not usually considered part of idiomatic writing in English. It is always better to be as simple as possible in academic writing style, especially if the subject is complex. The most important thing is to get information across to readers clearly. Writers of academic research papers and theses who insist on using abbreviations of Latin words should know something about them, to avoid making mistakes. The abbreviation et al. derives from the Latin words et alia, meaning and others. Often in Thai English writing, et al. is confused with other abbreviations of Latin terms, including ibid., etc., and i.e. The first thing to remember about et al. is that this abbreviation ends with a full stop. This full stop must be present even when et al. is placed in the middle of a sentence, where we are not accustomed to putting full stops. Because the original Latin words and others refer to other people, et al. means that other people are involved, not other things. Writers of Thai English who use the abbreviation etc. correctly know that it refers to other things, not other people. So, instead of writing to a friend:
I went to the movies at Central World Mall on Sunday with my friends Malivalaya, Mayuree, Pakpao, Phaelyn, Phaibun, Phitsamai, Prija, Ratanaporn, Rochana, and Saengdao.
It is fine to write:
I went to the movies at Central World Mall on Sunday with my friends Malivalaya, Mayuree, et al.
It would also be possible to write:
I went to the movies at Central World Mall on Sunday with my friends Malivalaya et al.
Note that our reader might not know the full list of the people who accompanied us to the movies. The abbreviation et al. suggests that there is a long list of our friends who were with us, although we might not have time to mention them all. It would not be polite to write:
I went to the movies at Central World Mall on Sunday with my friends Malivalaya, Mayuree, etc.
since the abbreviation etc. is for things and not for people. If we write by mistake
I went to the movies at Central World Mall on Sunday with my friends Malivalaya, Mayuree, etc.
this might give the impression that we consider our friends to be things or objects and not people. It would be much easier for the writer of Thai English to just use the good clear English words and others.
Another thing to remember is that the abbreviation et al. should not be put in italics. So, it is fine to write it as
et al.
but there is no need to write it as
et al.
This is because over the years, et al. has entered the English language and is no longer considered a foreign or exotic term. Et al. is useful and appropriate in footnotes, bibliographies, or references in academic writing and theses. In these instances, et al. is often seen because to write out the full list of authors of scientific articles or numerous editors of a scholarly research volume would take too much space. There are many different guidelines according to the system of references each student or ajarn is dealing with for a particular academic research paper or thesis. The American Psychological Association (APA), for example, recommends that et al. should be used according to how many authors are involved in a book or article, and whether the specific reference we are writing is the first time we have mentioned the book or article in our paper or thesis.
If an article or book was written or edited by one or two people, then we should not use et al., but just write the one or two names each time we refer to it in our paper or thesis. The reason that et al. should never be used for a single author is that et al. is plural, meaning and others. If the article or book has three, four, or five authors, we should mention them all the first time we refer to this article or book in our own work. After the first reference, we can then list the authors by mentioning the first name credited as author or editor followed by et al. This is allowed because we have already listed all the authors of the book, and readers of our work can refer back to that first reference if they want or need to know the full list of authors we are referring to. Finally, if articles or books have six or more authors, it is fine to refer every time, including the first time, to the authors by writing the first author’s name listed followed by et al. This is to save effort when a book has too many authors to be mentioned without cluttering up pages of an academic article or thesis. So, the first time we cite a book or article with one or two authors, for example
Chatchai & Sukkhawadee, 2012
We should always repeat the same form of citation no matter how many times we use it, for the rest of our research work:
Chatchai & Sukkhawadee, 2012
If we have three, four, or five authors, the first time we mention them all in the brief reference format:
Thanapol, Suea, & Intharit, 2016.
However, after that, if we mention them again, it is fine to use et al. in this way:
Thanapol et al., 2016
When there are six or more authors for a book or article, for example
Itti, Palangkul, Chatchai, Sukkhawadee, Rang, & Rockestra, 2017.
It is best to use et al. all the time, even for the first mention of this work:
Itti et al., 2017.
Some other problems or drawbacks of using et al. involve pronouncing it. It is difficult for a student to say the Latin abbreviation et al. without sounding like a robot or computer. Some people prefer to say and others even if the text actually includes the term et al., because and others sounds more natural.
Another difficulty is when our abbreviation for a book or article using et al. can be confused with another abbreviation we have already used in the same research paper or thesis. For example, if a productive author published more than one article in a year, we might have two references such as the following:
Swangviboonpong, Dusadee, Duriyanga, Phra Chen, & Wong, Deborah (2010) Customer Satisfaction among Thai Consumers of Krispy Kreme Donuts in Shopping Malls in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area. Cognitive Processing, 11, 103–121. doi:10.1007/s10339-009-0337-0
Swangviboonpong, Dusadee, Chuenyen, Prayong, & Indracusin, Chinawut (2010). Why Thai Teenagers are Fans of K-pop Music. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17, 287–309. doi:10.3758/PBR.17.3.287
In this case, if we used the abbreviation et al., mentioning just the first author and the year, readers might not know which of these two articles we were referring to. Both were written in the same year and both have the same lead author, so it is not enough to write et al. Instead, we would make it especially clear what we were discussing by using the abbreviation:
(Swangviboonpong, Duriyanga, & Wong, 2010)
(Swangviboonpong, Chuenyen, & Indracusin, 2010).
That way, readers will know that we are mentioning two entirely different articles with the same lead author.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)