| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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2. Style: Parallelism, Passives, Redundancy, and Wordiness
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| § 26. refer back |
| You may have to refer back to an earlier chapter, but should you ever do it in writing? Many people consider refer back to be redundant, since the prefix re- means “back.” Sixty-five percent of the usage panelists count themselves in this group. But when you think about it, refer back has some redeeming virtues. You can refer back to something that has already been mentioned or refer ahead to something that has not yet been mentioned. So you may want to refer back after all, if only to make sure your readers are looking in the right direction. | 1 |
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| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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