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Nota bene (NB) is a Latin phrase meaning “note well” and is used to emphasize and direct readers to pay special attention to important information in legal, academic, scientific, mathematical, and technical writings. It can also be used to mark critical sections in a document or signal the need for further analysis. NB is always capitalized and refers to a singular reader. It is also used as an abbreviation for “nulla bona” in legal contexts to indicate the defendant has no valuable assets.
Nota bene is a Latin phrase which translates to “note well”. The verb note is the singular derivation of noting, noting. Commonly abbreviated to NB, nota bene is used to add emphasis and to direct the reader of a document to take special care when reading the material that follows. Using this imperative is equivalent to writing an explicit instruction to pay close attention. NB is a common abbreviation in legal documents and academic, scientific, mathematical, and technical writings.
Professors use NB to emphasize instructions for a student to follow, in a course syllabus or set of lab instructions. A nota bene section is often added to the end of a longer set of instructions, particularly in academic contexts, to call attention to common procedural errors. As an abbreviation in a mathematical or statistical context, NB marks the key points for proving or solving a particular problem. In a research report or journal article, NB is used to call attention to surprising, confusing, or subtle points that are otherwise critical to understanding the conclusions drawn from data analysis.
In a legal context, nota bene is used to mark a section of material that is critical to understanding the purpose of the document. It is also useful for drawing the reader’s attention to material that is potentially confusing and requires further analysis. Particularly complicated or seemingly counterintuitive or contradictory material is often marked with this abbreviation. When a nota bene appears, it acts as a signal to readers that they should slow down and critically examine the material that follows.
While this usage isn’t as common, NB is also short for nulla bona, which translates to “no goods.” This is also an abbreviation used in legal contexts and it is important to use context to understand what NB denotes in a particular document. Nulla bona indicates that the defendant in a proceeding had no assets or effects that were of value to the seizure of assets.
The convention is that nota bene is always capitalized for abbreviation and refers to a singular reader. Note well, the plural form is not typically abbreviated. Rather than being used in a written document, nota bene is typically spoken aloud, to instruct a group of listeners to pay close attention to the next part of a speech.
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