The phrase "a half step forward" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a small or incremental progress or improvement in a situation or process.
Example: "After much discussion, we finally made a half step forward in resolving the issue."
Alternatives: "a small step forward" or "a minor advancement".
Interesting comparison on Sky between the dismissals of Amla and Strauss, both pinned on the crease by lifters then groping with only a half-step forward and missing when it's pitched up.
Wyeth sells consumer and animal-health products, which could help diversify Pfizer's revenue base (though it also suggests that Pfizer erred in selling its well-regarded consumer-products division to Johnson & Johnson, an American rival, two years ago).This deal is a useful "half step" forward for Pfizer, says Charles Farkas of Bain, a consultancy, but no more.
Each time, after taking his half step forward, Taub stepped back.
It advances three steps forward and a half step back.
As it stands (barely, flatulently, clutching a humongous firearm), "Postal" is a gimpy half-step forward for the man popularly known as "the worst filmmaker in the world".
Obsessions and fixations were as common as brilliant chains of reasoning, and every step forward seemed to be countered by two steps sideways and a half step back.
We take three steps forward, one and a half steps back, and then we move forward again and then back again.
"A tug of war is going on," she said, and that means the market will take "one and a half steps back for every three steps forward".
He described progress for gays in sports over the past decade as "two steps forward, one and a half steps back".
The case is a sham and, along with other discouraging developments, indicates that Egypt has not ended its troubling half-step forward, half-step back approach to human rights.
