Toward the Unknown

It's happened to all of us. You're writing, or typing, or even speaking when all of a sudden you can't remember how to spell or say a certain word. I found myself in this unnerving situation today while editing a client’s document. The culprit? Toward. Or is it towards?

Abraham Lincoln told us, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.” But 20th-century English biographer David Cecil advises: “The first step towards knowledge is to know that we are ignorant.” Today, my first step toward/towards knowledge seems to be stuck in the grammar phase. I suppose I have, however, readily admitted my ignorance.

In any case, I said the words out loud over and over again. I thought about it rationally. Does it depend on the subject? A duck could go toward the pond. But ducks could go toward the pond as well. No help. Adding an “s” to toward doesn’t make it plural because it’s a preposition, so I was stuck. You fellow grammar nerds out there will not be surprised that I first turned to Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. This type of dilemma is right up William Strunk’s alley. But nothing. Finally, Google produced some helpful references.

According to Kenneth G. Wilson’s The Columbia Guide to Standard American English and Paul Brians’ Common Errors in English Usage, both words are interchangeable. However, toward is more common in the U.S. and towards is more common in the U.K. I should have known—those Brits with all their unnecessary letters.