Choice of Words 

Ⅲ. General and Specific Words

Comparatively speaking, some words are more general or more specific in meaning than others. Professionals, for instance, is more general than scientists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, journalists, etc., all of which are more specific. But scientists may be called a general word when compared with physicists or chemists, which, in turn, is more general than biochemists.
Although both general and specific words are useful, a student learning to write should make an effort to master and use specific words wherever possible. Specific words help to make writing clear, exact, vivid, and striking, for they are more informative and expressive than general words. Compare:

a good man

kind, honest, just, generous, sympathetic, warm-hearted, selfless, brave, honorable

good food

tasty, delicious, nourishing, rich, wholesome, fresh, appetizing, abundant

house

mansion, villa, chateau, cottage, bungalow, cabin, hut, shack, shanty, shed, barn

laugh

smile, grin, beam, giggle, titter, snigger, chuckle, guffaw, chortle

It is easy to see that the specific words on the right are much more concrete and colorful than the general ones on the left; they seem to make the reader see, hear, or feel what the writer wishes to describe.
Using specific words should go along with providing details, and then there will be effective and impressive writing. Study the following examples:

General It is often windy and dusty here in spring.
Specific In spring there is often a very strong northwest wind. It carries so much fine dust with it that sometimes the sun becomes obscure. There is no escape from the fine dust; it gets into your eyes, your ears, your nostrils, and your hair. It goes through the cracks of closed windows and covers your desks and chairs.
General Students do many interesting things after classes.
Specific Every morning and afternoon the sports fields are alive with energetic students. Football and basketball matches, volleyball, and badminton, track-training and gymnastics are all in full swing. Even the alleyways under the trees and around the flower beds provide enough space for enthusiasts to practise. Through the windows comes the pitter-patter of ping-pong balls, the sound of songs and music, or laughter and discussion.
General An old Negro woman was walking in the woods.
Specific Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods. She was very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock. She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her. This made a grave and persistent noise in the still air, that seemed meditative like the chirping of a solitary little bird.

- Eudora Welty

General Not far from the railway there was a cottage with a garden and trees and flowers around it.
Specific On the outskirts of a little town upon a rise of land that swept back from the railway there was a tidy little cottage of white boards, trimmed vividly with green blinds. To one side of the house there was a garden neatly patterned with plots of growing vegetables, and an arbor for the grapes which ripened late in August. Before the house there were three mighty oaks which sheltered it in their clean and massive shade in summer, and to the other side there was a border of gay flowers. The whole place had an air of tidiness, thrift, and modest comfort.

- Thomas Wolfe

Ⅳ. Idioms

An idiom is a fixed group of words with a special meaning which is different from the meanings of the words that form it. To "read a book", for instance, is not an idiom, for the meaning of the phrase is the meanings of the three words put together, and "a book" can be replaced by other words like "a newspaper" or "a novel". To "read between the lines" is different. The four words that form the phrase give no hint as to what it means and none of the words can be changed to form another understandable phrase.
English is rich in idioms. The following types of idioms are most common:

Phrasal verbs

put up with
turn out
look forward to
carry on
come across

N. + prep. + n.

a straw in the wind
the apple of one's eye
like a fish out of water
in a world of one's own

Prep. + n.

in kind
on the air
at length
with flying colors

V. + n.

won't hold water
slip one's mind
kill two birds with one stone
go to the dogs

As ... as

as easy as pie
as big as life
as different as night and day
as poor as a church mouse

Pairs of words

wear and tear
high and dry
touch and go
in black and white

Sayings

One man's meat is another man's poison.
A stitch in time saves nine.
Take it or leave it.
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.

    Idioms are frequently used in speech and writing. They help to make one's language sound natural and idiomatic. But in using them foreign learners of English should remember the following two points: (1) most idioms are informal or colloquial in style and can be used in conversation; but a few are slang and should be used with care, such as all balled up, meaning troubled or confused, and to cough up, meaning to produce something; (2) many idioms have become clichés and are no longer fresh or interesting, such as armed to the teeth and as good as gold, and should be used sparingly.