Word choice is a critical element of style simply because it defines the language your writing is eventually dressed up in. The more precise your word choices and the more colorful your vocabulary, the better your writing usually ends up.
Matching language to thought. The words you choose should match the ideas you want to convey. The more adeptly you can achieve that, the clearer and more powerful your writing can be.
Matching language to your audience. Writing for mid-40s business professionals isn’t the same as writing for a group of teens in high school. The language you use for one group will probably sound out of place when used with the other, so consider the audience you’re writing for every time.
Precision. The more precise your choice in words, the more exact the meaning you can convey. With less precision comes a bigger room for misunderstanding. If you want to avoid leading the reader down a wrong path, work towards choosing words that convey your ideas in exact terms.
Concreteness. When you use concrete words, your language becomes more tangible. Intensifying modifiers and conceptual words have their place, but their use should kept to those times when they are necessary.
