'Above' and 'below' layout references

'As shown above', 'see below' — references that depend on page layout and break in re-flowed or copy-pasted text.

What ProfText flags

Reference to position in document. Breaks if content is reordered or excerpted.

How to fix it

Add explicit reference: 'as shown in Section 2.1' or 'in Table 3'.

Why this matters

Modern text appears in many shapes: a desktop browser, a phone screen, a screen reader, a PDF, a Slack quote, a search snippet. 'As shown above' assumes a layout the reader may not have. Replace with the noun being referred to ('in the table of error codes', 'in §3.2'). The change costs five words and protects the document against every form of re-flow.

Languages

• en
• fr
• de
• it

Detection pattern

\b(as\s+(shown|mentioned|discussed|noted|stated|described)\s+(above|below|earlier|previously))\b

Related rules

• 'The following' — vague forward reference'The following table', 'the following list' — forward pointers that break when content moves or is excerpted.
• Unanchored 'this' and 'that''This is significant' — 'this' what? Anaphoric pronouns without clear referents introduce ambiguity at every paragraph break.
• References to 'the previous section''As discussed in the previous section' — breaks the moment a heading is renamed or content is reordered.