# Proper punctuation for "et al."?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-punctuation-for-et-al/211606>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 5, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-punctuation-for-et-al/211606 "2003-11-05T19:49:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\
**Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-punctuation-for-et-al/211606/21 "2003-11-07T22:23:31Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ENugent \*  
> \*\*Actually, **Cliffy** , I just checked my Bluebook, and it says no comma for lists of authors’ or editors’ names (and it’s omitted entirely in case names). \*\*

Uh, you must be looking in a different edition. :o

–Cliffy

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-punctuation-for-et-al/211606/22 "2003-11-08T00:37:53Z")

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Always use the final comma in a series. It adds clarity, and is never wrong. (The basic position of the Chicago Manual of Style.)

Eschewing the comma was simply a fashion for a time.

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**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-punctuation-for-et-al/211606/23 "2003-11-08T01:16:31Z")

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I personally prefer consistent use of the serial comma, since occasionally it will avoid confusion, and its absence has no special justification. But I won’t cvonsider a consistent omission of the final comma a solecism.

However, _any_ abbreviated word requires a period to signal the abbreviation. (This does not apply to portmanteau terms, initials of phrases used as words, and neologisms derived from such initials-of-phrases. So _al._ requires a period.

I also greatly prefer italicizing any formal-writing Latin locution used in English which has not come to be an accepted part of spoken English (_Ibid._, _ceteris paribus_, but etc., since people do use “et cetera,” even in relatively colloquial speaking, after providing examples to indicate their list is not exhaustive).

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