The phrase "a step upward" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an improvement or advancement in a situation, position, or condition.
Example: "After receiving the promotion, I felt like I had taken a significant step upward in my career."
Alternatives: "a move forward" or "an advancement".
For those on the lower rungs of the income ladder, a step upward can be profound.
So is this ascent from jaw-dropping badness to mere mediocrity a step upward?
"Every thousand hardy, efficient workers who float West on Free Lands," Greeley editorialized, "would leave places open for as many others; and these taking a step upward, would leave room for advancement of as many more and so on".
As he took command on Coaster's Island, there is little doubt that Bill Pratt must have wondered whether he was preparing for a step upward or whether his career was over and he was now starting a round of shore duty assignments, each of less importance than the previous one.
Only the most dazzled optimist could consider Mr. Ozawa's new job -- music director of the Vienna State Opera -- a career step upward, but here he was treated as a man going on to better things.
Zito is plotting an ambitious summer and fall for his prodigy, who has won his last three races, but who will take a giant step upward next Sunday in the Dwyer Stakes when he tangles with several top graduates of the Triple Crown.
In this sense, Recorded Future technologically is an evolutionary step upward from the Total Information Awareness promoted by the CIA's General Poindexter (kept alive in concept by the CIA), but potentially a socially evolutionary step downward.
The seats fold forward in one go (and split 60/40), but this doesn't yield a flat-load floor but a flat space behind the seats and then a sort of step upward formed by the folded-over seats.
With each step upward came a more expansive view, mirroring the expansion of the urban area below — almost as if the city, as it projected outward, called for ever-higher vantage points from which its growing scale and ambition could be comprehended.
With each step upward came a more expansive view, mirroring the expansion of the urban area below almost as if the city, as it projected outward, called for ever-higher vantage points from which its growing scale and ambition could be comprehended.
Yet each step upward rewarded us with a clearer view of the majestic White Mountains on the horizon.
