Best practices when refering to above section I'm wondering about how to refer to sections right above or below the piece of text referring. I know that I'm supposed to use section numbers almost all the time, but personally feel that this might be an exception.
I know that this question might be subjective, but that's what I want to find out: if it's subjective I can choose and write whatever I think is best. However, I want to check that what I think is right isn't 'not-done'.
Concider the following piece of pseudo-document:

Section 1: point-by-point problem description
Section 2.1: point-by-point solution description
Section 2.2: mapping problem points to solution and explain benefit
Referring text here

Right now, the referring text says something like &quot;This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description above.&quot; Is this right? Because the alternative &quot;This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description in section 2.1.&quot; seems wrong, since it is right under the thing it is referring to.
Thanks!
This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description above, in section 2.1.


Being unambiguous and adding redundant information is good, because you might very well make a mistake when writing one of the references (but it is unlikely to make the same same mistake with all of them), and the reader might make a mistake when reading the references (but this is less likely when there are several things all pointing to the same direction).

If your sections have names in addition to numbers, you may refer to them using both, if this is a good stylictic choice, or only the name or only the number. Do not, however, alternate between using only the section number and only the section name, as this will only confuse the reader, who might not realize that the name and the number point to the same thing.