"In reference to" and "referring to", "in Improving"

[wuhollyh]

What is the difference between "in reference to" and "referring to"? How are their usage different?

Is use of "in improving" always wrong? ex. "Your edits have been significant in improving the book"

Thanks!

[RonPurewal]

What is the difference between "in reference to" and "referring to"? How are their usage different?

the best answer i can give to this question is:
* go to google
* type "in reference to" as a search term (with the quotes); then read through a whole bunch of the results, and see how the phrase is used
* do the same for "referring to"

this is not a non-answer; this is actually the best way to investigate any super-general usage question, such as the one above. (the internet's usage will not always be 100% correct, but the top search results will most often use things correctly.)

did you see these in any specific gmat problems? if so, where?

Is use of "in improving" always wrong? ex. "Your edits have been significant in improving the book"

no, it's not always wrong.
The role of practice in improving one's dance skills cannot be overestimated
it's correct in that sentence.

this is obviously not a random question (i.e., you didn't roll out of bed one day and think, "hey, you know what sounds wrong? 'in improving'!") -- it must have been precipitated by some sort of gmat-related problem.
could you post that problem, please? (or, if it's from a banned source, just mention the problem number?)

thanks.