Thursday, September 18, 2014

going forward: Common Errors in English Usage Entry for Thursday, September 18, 2014

going forward
Speakers in the business world and in government are fond of saying “going forward” to mean “from now on,” “in the future,” or even “now.” It gives a sense of action, purpose, and direction that appeals to many people.

However, many other people find it pretentious and annoying, especially when it is used simply to indicate that the future is being talked about. Since in English our verbs do this job nicely, “going forward” is often superfluous. In a statement like “Going forward, we’re going to have to budget more for advertising,” the sentence would be just as clear and less cluttered if the first two words were dropped.

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You may say that Paul Brians has built a great resource with Common Errors in English Usage, but please don't say he has architected a great resource, though that would technically not be an error. His latest blog post explains why.

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