The answer is collocations, collocations, collocations, and more collocations. You've got to know your collocations if you want to reach higher levels of the English language. A good start to learning collocations is a good learner's dictionary, like the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. It's a good resource, but only provides a few collocations. Web link: http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ If you really want to build your knowledge of collocations, you can access search engines for collocations at http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/ (British English) and http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/ (American English) All three of these resources will allow you to see how the words are used in context. The two search engines for collocations will allow you to chose the type of English you need. Of course, written academic English, business English, and spoken English have very different collocations and the search engines let you chose which to search through.