Toward or Towards?

gurlnlifemagazine · Sep 1, 2011

Hi everyone,

This might seem like a dumb question, but I need some clarification on this. When I got part of my book critiqued professionally woman critiquing crossed out the "s" in "towards" every time I used it. It's been a while since I've taken an English course and according to my dictionary "towards" is a word.

I'm wondering if anyone could explain to me if using "towards" is a bad thing? I asked her for clarification on it, but I did not get an answer.

Thank you.

Allen R. Brady · Sep 1, 2011

There's nothing wrong with towards. Toward is more common in American English, and towards is more common in British, but they mean exactly the same thing. It's purely a question of taste.

gurlnlifemagazine · Sep 1, 2011

Ah, thank you. That was really bothering me

Captcha · Sep 1, 2011

CMOS seems to prefer 'toward', so if you're writing for a publisher that uses CMOS (like most of the American ones), you'll probably be asked to drop the 's'.

blacbird · Sep 1, 2011

Don't matter none, that I can see.

caw

Becca_H · Sep 2, 2011

Yeah, toward = American and towards = British.

However, every single US manuscript I've beta'd tends to use 'towards'. I think it's becoming more popular in the US.

AmsterdamAssassin · Sep 2, 2011

Just make sure you're consistent.

jeffo20 · Sep 2, 2011

Becca_H said:
Yeah, toward = American and towards = British.

However, every single US manuscript I've beta'd tends to use 'towards'. I think it's becoming more popular in the US.

I've always tended to use 'towards' over 'toward', I don't know why. I also prefer the Oxford comma. Maybe I'm an Anglophile at heart.

bonitakale · Sep 2, 2011

I tend to cross out the S just because it's unnecessary. Seems to me I say towards when I speak, but write toward.

ResearchGuy · Sep 2, 2011

Dialog or narrative? Characters speak the way they speak -- the choice might typify one character, but not another.

Towards, British; toward, American, as noted already and as stated by Bryan Garner in the Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus.

--Ken

Kenn · Sep 3, 2011

bonitakale said:
I tend to cross out the S...

Is that because you regard it as untoward?

bonitakale · Sep 3, 2011

Kenn said:
Is that because you regard it as untoward?

Oo, ouch.

gurlnlifemagazine · Sep 3, 2011

Kenn said:
Is that because you regard it as untoward?

lol

"Towards" just sounds better to me because that's how I would say it and I tend to write like I talk. Not always a good thing

. But this is clarifying

pegasus · Sep 4, 2011

Becca_H said:
Yeah, toward = American and towards = British.

However, every single US manuscript I've beta'd tends to use 'towards'. I think it's becoming more popular in the US.

I've been watching this one myself and agree with you. Americans are headed towards the Brit usage. So much so that I've about given up 'correcting' it when critiquing American writers.

PrincessofPersia · Sep 4, 2011

jeffo20 said:
I also prefer the Oxford comma. Maybe I'm an Anglophile at heart.

According to Wikipedia, it's also called the Harvard comma and is used less commonly in British English than in the States. In Australia, we only use it if its absence would cause confusion. [/aside]

Toward or Towards?

gurlnlifemagazine

Life is the deadline

Allen R. Brady

gurlnlifemagazine

Life is the deadline

Captcha

blacbird

Becca_H

Where am I again?

AmsterdamAssassin

jeffo20

Tyrant King

bonitakale

ResearchGuy

Resident Curmudgeon

Kenn

New kid, be gentle!

bonitakale

gurlnlifemagazine

Life is the deadline

pegasus

practical experience, FTW

PrincessofPersia