How to Cite Multiple Works by the Same Author in MLA

If your Works Cited list contains more than one work by the same author, an in-text citation with just the author's name no longer points to a single source. MLA solves this by adding a shortened title after the author's name, separated by a comma. Book and other longer-work titles are italicized; article and web-page titles go in quotation marks.

The Rule in Brief

The MLA Handbook directs writers who cite more than one work by an author to include a short form of the particular title in the citation "to distinguish it from the others." Everything else — narrative vs. parenthetical placement, page numbers — works exactly as it does with a single source:

• Parenthetical: author's last name, comma, shortened title, then page number: (Haynes, Noah's Curse 84)
• Narrative with author named: Murray states that writing is "a process" (Write to Learn 6)
• Narrative with both named: Haynes writes in Noah's Curse that ... (84)

Shorten the Title Like a No-Author Citation

The shortened title follows the same rules as a no-author citation: drop the opening article and reduce to the first noun phrase, starting with the same word the title is alphabetized by in your Works Cited list.

If the full title is "A History of Visual Studies," the shortened form is "Visual Studies" — short enough to keep the citation readable, specific enough to match the entry.

Works Cited: The Three-Em-Dash Rule

On your Works Cited page, repeated author names get compressed so the list stays scannable. The first entry by an author shows the full name; every later entry by the same author replaces the name with three em dashes followed by a period:

In a typical word processor you can type three hyphens and let the program convert them to an em dash — or use the dash character directly. The period follows the dash. Alphabetize these repeated entries by title, since the author portion is now identical.

When the Author Is Already Named in Your Sentence

If the sentence names the author, the shortened title moves into the citation alongside the page number. Compare the two patterns:

You can also work both the author and the title into the sentence, leaving only the page number in parentheses:

Multiple Works Without Page Numbers

When the source has no page number, the citation keeps the author and shortened title, with nothing after them:

This is the multiple-works form of the no-page-number rule — see MLA citation without page number for the details.

Two Works by the Same Author With the Same Title

Rare but real: an author can publish two works with identical titles (a book and an article, or a 2nd and 3rd edition). When that happens, add the distinguishing detail in square brackets — the edition, the publisher, or the translator:

What About Two Different Authors With the Same Last Name?

"Same author" can also refer to two different people who happen to share a surname. That is a separate rule: add each author's first initial — or full first name if the initials match — as in (R. Miller 12) and (A. Miller 46). We cover that scenario in our guide to citing multiple authors.

Combining the Same-Author Rule With Other Rules

The shortened-title format stacks on top of every other author rule in this series. You never have to choose between them — you simply combine:

• Same author + two co-authors: keep all the authors and add the title — (Best, Marcus, and Franks, Reading the Surface 9). With three or more, et al. still applies: (Grant et al., Rivers of Power 32).
• Same author + organization: if the same group publishes several works, the shortened title follows the group's name, (United Nations, World Population Prospects 8).
• Same author + no page number: (Haynes, Noah's Curse) — no locator to add.

The comma between the author and the title is constant; the title's formatting and the page number follow the normal source-type rules.

Narrative Patterns With Two Works in One Sentence

When you compare two works by the same author in a single sentence, MLA's examples show each citation carrying its own shortened title:

Notice the author's name appears only in the sentence; each parenthetical carries its own title and page. This is the clearest way to signal two different sources while keeping the prose readable.

How to Type the Three-Em-Dash Record

The repeated-author marker in Works Cited is technically "three em dashes." Most processors convert three hyphens into an em dash automatically as you type. If you are working in plain text or need the marker explicitly:

You can also insert the em dash character directly (on Windows: Alt+0151; on a Mac: Option+Shift+-), then add the period. Both renderings are accepted; the point is a clear, unbroken dash that a reader recognizes as "same author as above."

Multiple Works in the Same Book Series or Set

When the same author wrote several books in one numbered set, your citation needs the author, the title, and the volume. MLA writes the volume as an Arabic numeral, then a colon, then the page:

Do not write "vol. 2, p. 55" in a parenthetical — the number-colon-number shorthand is the MLA convention, and it prevents any confusion with the shortened-title comma above. The same pattern handles multi-volume collected works, so the reader can always jump to the exact volume and page without leaving the sentence.

Common Mistakes

• Omitting the shortened title — the citation then points to every entry by that author, so the reader cannot tell which source you used.
• Putting the title in the wrong format — italics for articles, quotation marks for books.
• Forgetting the comma between the author's name and the title.
• Repeating the author's name in every Works Cited entry — use the three-em-dash after the first.
• Using "ibid." or "same" to mean the author again — MLA does not use ibid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I cite one page number or the whole range when quoting from two works by the same author?

Each citation carries the specific page from the work it quotes. The shortened title is what distinguishes the works; the page numbers are always tied to the work being cited.

How do I cite multiple works by the same author if one is an article and one is a book?

Format each shortened title by its own rules — quotation marks for the article, italics for the book — and keep both entries (with the three-em-dash) in Works Cited.

Do I use "et al." if a work by the same author has other co-authors?

Yes, if the source has three or more authors. For example, (Hunt et al., Rivers of Power 32). The co-author rule from the multiple-authors guide applies on top of the shortened-title rule.

What if a work by the same author isn't in my Works Cited yet?

Every source you cite in text must have a Works Cited entry. If you cite a second work by an author, add it to the list — the three-em-dash rule then applies to the second entry.