Very

A wise mentor always told me I should never use the word "very" if I wanted to write well. I didn't really believe him until I ran across two uses in different manuscripts. One said that something was "very critical." I'm not actually sure if you can get more critical than critical. The other was "very fundamental." It doesn't get more fundamental than fundamental.

I confess I still use "very" very liberally. Augh! I did it again! I'm becoming more aware of how the word cheapens other words. Particularly in American culture, we tend to superlativize like crazy. So once "critical" or "fundamental" isn't enough anymore, we add "very." A way to avoid overusing the word is to ask, "Does the word being described carry the meaning of 'very' in it already?" Then ask whether the word being described is strong enough. You may be able to substitute a word that's more colorful anyway, and your writing just got better.