"lay stress" is an acceptable phrase in written English.
You can use it when you want to emphasize a particular point or idea. For example, "It is important to lay stress on the need for adequate resources."
We have to lay stress on proper education at the pre-primary and primary levels.
Some Baptists lay stress upon having no human founder, no human authority, and no human creed.
But I want to lay stress not on your origins but on your quality, your integrity and your worldly wisdom".
Similarly, moral attitudes are illustrated in sculptures that lay stress on dharma customs or laws governing duty.
Whenever possible, E.T. shares the frame with his young friends; we don't get many shots of him alone, for that would lay stress on his otherness.
I believed that in any society there will always be one political faction in govern-ment that will lay stress on the importance of production.
Then on July 30, the review's managing editor, Kevin Morrissey, took a gun to a coal tower on the outskirts of town and killed himself, an act that some of Mr. Morrissey's friends and family attributed partly to stress in the workplace — even going so far as to lay that stress publicly at Mr. Genoways's door.
Greig and Tiffany, however, lay great stress on the story's sexual quality.
The prime minister, David Cameron, lay great stress on gangs being behind the riots.
It's instructive to see how "Fightville" and "Caged" package their stories, where they lay the stress.
Western religions, on the other hand, lay more stress on humanity's obedient response to the sovereign Word of God.
