Most days when editing, I’ll see one manuscript with the s-less version of this word and another with the s. Sometimes the manuscripts even come from writers who live in the same city. So which is right?
Either word is considered grammatically correct, according to the powers that be. Toward is more common in American and Canadian English and towards in British English, however.
Given this, I usually edit towards to read toward among my North American clients.
The exception: When a British character appears in dialogue, he says towards. This is very subtle wording that helps distinguish the character as British (while use of telly and lorry and bloody are less subtle and almost cliché).
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.