"Hopefully lots of internauts will land here searching for gossip and end up learning something useful."
"Strong work!"
"I enjoyed your site. I thought you would like to know about the following error: in the column about Nicole Kidman and the dangling participle, the writer [used the term] 'refer back.' This is redundant." 1
"…language-lovers might love this site, which teaches proper english through… celebrities." - The Media Interview
"Um, amazing? That's a fabulous website you got there. I didn't expect celebrityenglish.com to be so instructional!" - Karin Freed
1 We realize that many writers believe this term to be redundant and that many style guides prohibit its use, but we choose to use it when discussing pronoun/antecedent agreement to give students an idea of where in the sentence to look for the antecedent. When the antecedent comes before the pronoun, we use "refer back," but when it follows the pronoun, we use "refer ahead." When we use "refer" outside of this context, we use neither modifier.
We have considered the usage note for "refer" in the American Heritage Dictionary, among others, in making our decision: "It is sometimes believed that the phrase refer back is redundant, since the prefix re– means "back," but the objection is misplaced. In fact, an expression can refer either to something that has already been mentioned or to something that is yet to be mentioned, and the distinction between refer back and refer ahead may thus be required for clarification. For example, the sentence Jones promised that if he was elected to the council, Harris would be made the council president is ambiguous, because the pronoun he may either refer back or refer ahead."
