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About Writing: A Guide: Nouns

About Writing: A Guide
Nouns
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Notes

table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Table Of Contents
  5. Composing
    1. Types of Writing Styles
    2. Understanding the Assignment
    3. Assessing the Writing Situation
    4. Test Your Thesis
    5. Constructing an Outline
    6. Checklist: Planning a Document
    7. Transitions
    8. Visuals Help You Communicate
  6. Academic writing
    1. Active Reading
    2. Analyzing a Text
    3. Rhetorical Concepts
    4. Academic Writing: Point of View
    5. Academic Writing: Verb Tense
    6. How to: Write a Summary
    7. Countering Opposing Arguments
    8. Putting Inductive Reasoning to the Test
    9. Most Common Evidence Used by Authors
  7. Researching
    1. Keyword Searching: Do it Better!
    2. Is this source scholarly?
    3. Evaluating Sources
    4. Evaluating Web Sources
    5. What Do You Need for a Citation?
    6. Avoiding Plagiarism
  8. MLA/APA/CMS
    1. What is MLA, APA, and CMS?
    2. MLA Signal Phrases
    3. MLA Citation Examples
    4. APA Signal Phrases
    5. APA Citation Examples
    6. CMS Signal Phrases
  9. Basic Grammar
    1. Introducing... Subordinate Clauses!
  10. Grammatical Sentences
    1. Subject-Verb Agreement
    2. Should You Use –s (or –es) for a Present-Tense Verb?
    3. Is Your Sentence a Fragment?
    4. Is Your Sentence a Run-On?
    5. Does Your Sentence Have a Dangling Modifier?
  11. Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges
    1. Verb Forms: The Basics
    2. Verb Tenses: Active Voice
    3. Verb Tenses: Passive Voice
    4. The Meaning of Modals
    5. Nouns
    6. Articles for Common Nouns
    7. Non-count Nouns
    8. Geography and ‘The’
    9. How to Order Cumulative Adjectives
    10. Three Magic Words: At, On, and In
    11. Combo Time! – Adjectives & Prepositions
    12. Combo Time! – Verbs & Prepositions
  12. Revising
    1. A strategy for analyzing and revising a first draft
    2. Checklist: Revision
    3. How to: Be a Constructive Peer Reviewer

Nouns

Common

Common nouns are words that name general persons, places, or things, and they begin with lowercase letters.

Examples

school, ignorance, sunshine, teacher, city

Proper

Proper nouns are words that name specific persons, places, or things, and they being with capital letters.

Examples

Mazama High School, Robin, Japan, President Obama, Lincoln Memorial, Enlightenment

Count

Count nouns are common nouns that name general persons, places, or things that can be counted, either singularly or plural.

Examples

boy, boys OR town, towns OR pigeon, pigeons OR religion, religions

Non-count

Non-count nouns are common nouns that name things or ideas that can’t be counted or made plural.

Examples

gold, rain, gravel, goodness, ignorance, air

Singular

Singular nouns are any nouns that represent only one person, place, or thing.

Examples

purse, county, man, failure, Amazon River, Albatross Island

Plural

Plural nouns are count nouns that represent several persons, places, or things.

Examples

purses, counties, men, Cascade Mountains, Canary Islands

Specific (Definite)

Specific (or definite) nouns are words that name people, places, or things that can be identified within a group of the same type.

Examples

  • The students in Professor Alan’s class are very bright.
  • The train carrying the President was an hour early.
  • The books in the car were damaged.

General (Indefinite)

General (or indefinite) nouns are words that name categories of people, places, or things, and are often plural.

Examples

  • Teachers should grade.
  • Plays help people connect.
  • The subway has made commuting between libraries easy.

Annotate

Next chapter
Articles for Common Nouns
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College Writing: Guides, Handbooks, and Advice
Copyright © 2015 by Robin Jeffrey. About Writing: A Guide by Robin Jeffrey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
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