Published on
19 August 2022
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
2 December 2022.
A proper noun is a noun that serves as the name for a specific place, person, or thing. To distinguish them from common nouns, proper nouns are always capitalised in English.
Proper nouns include personal names, place names, names of companies and organisations, and the titles of books, films, songs, and other media.
Examples: Proper nouns in a sentenceI’ve never been to Egypt.
The Scribbr Knowledge Base is a useful educational resource.
Mr. Smith’s class is reading Much Ado About Nothing.
Her favorite Michael Jackson song was ‘Human Nature‘.
Published on
21 July 2022
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
20 March 2023.
In English, you must put a comma before ‘and’ when it connects two independent clauses. A clause is independent when it could stand on its own as a sentence–it has its own subject and verb.
Example: Comma before ‘and’ connecting two independent clausesJagmeetwalks to school, and Rebeccatakes the bus.
But when ‘and’ connects two verbs with the same subject, you shouldn’t use a comma.
Example: ‘And’ connecting two verbs with the same subjectJagmeetwalks to school and arrives early.
In this case, Jagmeet is the subject who performs both actions (walking and arriving).
Published on
21 July 2022
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
20 October 2022.
Ad nauseam is an adverb meaning ‘to a sickening degree’.
It’s usually not used literally to refer to sickness or nausea but instead means that something is going on and on, or being repeated over and over, until it becomes annoying or boring (until you’re sick of it).
Examples: ‘Ad nauseam’ in a sentenceThe issue of gun control has been debated ad nauseam.
Steve talks about his boyfriend ad nauseam.
The teacher made her repeat the memory exercises ad nauseam.
Though people often misspell it ‘ad nauseum’, the only correct spelling is ‘ad nauseam’.
Ad nauseam is a term that comes from Latin, but it’s been used in English for hundreds of years, so you don’t need to italicise it as you would for a more recent loanword.
Published on
21 July 2022
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
23 August 2023.
Borne and born are both past participle forms of the verb ‘bear’, meaning ‘carry’. They’re both pronounced in the same way.
‘Borne’ is used in most cases, when you’re just referring to bearing (carrying) something. It’s also the spelling used in compound words like ‘airborne’ (carried through the air) and ‘blood-borne’ (transmitted by blood).
‘Born’ is used when you’re referring to birth, whether literally (to childbirth) or figuratively.
Examples: ‘Borne’ in a sentence
Examples: ‘Born’ in a sentence
Mosquito-borne diseases are a major problem in tropical climates.
He was born in New York in the hot summer of 1957.
She had borne the responsibility for many years.
Greatness is often born from adversity.
My hard work has finally borne fruit.
She was a born leader.
It must be borne in mind that little research has been done into this subject.
The hospital I was born in has been demolished.
NoteWatch out for other potential mistakes with the verb ‘bear’, such as confusing ‘bear’ and ‘bare’, or misusing the expression ‘bear with me‘.
In academic writing, ‘common knowledge’ refers to information that the average educated reader would accept without needing a source citation to back it up.
There are two main categories of common knowledge:
Information that most people know
Information shared by a specific group of people, such as a national or cultural group, or academics in a particular field of study
In academic writing, it’s normally essential to cite your sources, but statements that are considered common knowledge do not need a citation.
Textual analysis is a broad term for various research methods used to describe, interpret and understand texts. All kinds of information can be gleaned from a text – from its literal meaning to the subtext, symbolism, assumptions, and values it reveals.
The methods used to conduct textual analysis depend on the field and the aims of the research. It often aims to connect the text to a broader social, political, cultural, or artistic context.
Published on
6 May 2022
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
6 April 2023.
Ethnography is a type of qualitative research that involves immersing yourself in a particular community or organisation to observe their behaviour and interactions up close. The word ‘ethnography’ also refers to the written report of the research that the ethnographer produces afterwards.
Ethnography is a flexible research method that allows you to gain a deep understanding of a group’s shared culture, conventions, and social dynamics. However, it also involves some practical and ethical challenges.
Thematic analysis is a method of analysing qualitative data. It is usually applied to a set of texts, such as an interview or transcripts. The researcher closely examines the data to identify common themes, topics, ideas and patterns of meaning that come up repeatedly.
There are various approaches to conducting thematic analysis, but the most common form follows a six-step process:
Familiarisation
Coding
Generating themes
Reviewing themes
Defining and naming themes
Writing up
This process was originally developed for psychology research by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke. However, thematic analysis is a flexible method that can be adapted to many different kinds of research.
Published on
20 May 2020
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
7 November 2022.
In Harvard style, to reference a journal article, you need the author name(s), the year, the article title, the journal name, the volume and issue numbers, and the page range on which the article appears.
If you accessed the article online, add a DOI (digital object identifier) if available.
Poggiolesi, F. (2016) ‘On defining the notion of complete and immediate formal grounding’, Synthese, 193(10), pp. 3147–3167. doi:10.1007/s11229-015-0923-x.
Scribbr’s free Harvard reference generator can instantly create accurate references for a wide variety of source types:
Published on
19 May 2020
by
Jack Caulfield.
Revised on
7 November 2022.
To reference a website in Harvard style, include the name of the author or organization, the year of publication, the title of the page, the URL, and the date on which you accessed the website.
Different formats are used for other kinds of online source, such as articles, social media posts and multimedia content. You can generate accurate Harvard references for all kinds of sources with our free reference generator:
