Recovering mid-answer
“To come back to your question…”
When to use it
When you notice you have drifted. Signals self-awareness and returns you to the point.
What it replaces
Continuing to drift and ending with "…so, yeah."
The hedged version is not wrong English. It is English that asks the interviewer to do the work of deciding whether you meant it. The confident version makes the decision for them.
In an answer
“To come back to your question — the biggest lesson was to confirm scope in writing.”
How to make it automatic
- Say it aloud five times now, at normal speed, with contractions.
- Pick one story from your own work where it fits, and say that story once using it.
- Record a 60-second answer tomorrow and listen for whether it came out on its own.