Sometimes our relaxed language, colloquialisms, creep into our written prose and can cause a lot of roadblocks when trying to get published. Specific words ending with the letter s can cause problems for many.
Drop the letter s. If you believe that one letter couldn’t possibly cause you to receive a rejection, I encourage you to think again, especially if the same mistake recurs throughout your manuscript. (See Update at end of this Section.)
Incorrect usage comes from the lax attitude about our English language. Most people speak in jargon or a brogue that comes from a certain locale. I call it family hand-me-down language. Truth is, no matter from where you hail, your written grammar must be correct for the broader reading audience.
Some Examples
I’m speaking of the letter s. Check out these sentences:
She ran towards the garage.
The ball rolled backwards.
Look upwards.
These sentences are all incorrect. That is, the use of the letter s is incorrect. The letter s denotes something plural. In the first sentence, moving toward something means you can only go in one direction. Toward.
If the ball rolled backward, it can only go in one direction. Backward.
To look upward, you can only look in one direction. Upward.
Not surprising, an example of an exception is:
She leaned sideways.
The rule here is that when leaning, you can lean sideways in more than one direction, therefore the use of the letter s.
You’ll find many other words that are incorrectly used with s endings. When you find these, make note of them, maybe a running list. You’ll have the list to refer back to when you question your own writing.
This is but one of the finite idiosyncrasies of producing better grammar when writing stories and books that you hope to sell. Study your own language and speech. Watch how the s is used or omitted in books that you love to read. Get into the habit of listening to the speech patterns of others. Think critically of what you hear, but never criticize of a person who speaks that way. Instead, mentally analyze what you have heard. Learn the right from the wrong of speech and your writing will reflect your knowledge.
NOTE: All sorts of comments have been offered for this article on the use of the letter s when describing directions. Here then is some instruction from The Chicago Manual of Style: Word Usage 5.220:
“The preferred form is without the –s in American English, with it in British English. The same is true for other directional words, such as upward, downward, forward, and backward, as well as afterward. The use of afterwards and backwards as adverbs is neither rare nor incorrect. But for the sake of consistency, it is better to stay with the simpler form.”
UPDATE: I’ve noticed that even the Chicago Manual of Style allows for the use of the letter s in many instances. For example, you can use words like backwards or towards, but there are times when you should not use them with the letter s attached. I urge you to get your hands on a late edition of this volume of writing instruction and check it against when you apply the letter s to your directional words.
Am Amazon Review for Write It Right – Tips for Authors
This [Award-Winning] collection of essays is up there with some of the really great books on writing. Writing is one of those things no one ever stops learning how to do, and the tips contained in Write It Right cover pretty much every aspect. You can either read it from start to finish or jump around, using it as a resource to turn to when needed, but either way this book belongs on the shelf of every aspiring and established author. Review by Justice Slade http://mybook.to/writeitright