Writing advice from my seventh grade teacher — Sister John Rose
Monocle pointed out the un-necessity of the word “very.” He’s absolutely right, and I meant to add that in. Sr. Rose was a quite strict when it came to English, and one of the things I remember is that she warned us against the word “very.”
- If something is “very important,” then it is “vital.”
- If something is “very hard,” it is “difficult.”
- If something is “very sad,” it is “tragic,” or perhaps “sorrowful.”
Again, I’d make an exception for dialogue, or perhaps some special part of a story — an excerpt of a diary, for example. In nearly any other situation, it’s very unnecessary. 
Here’s writing advice from my 10th grade history teacher. “Your essay should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject but short enough to keep it interesting.”
Catchy, but I don’t think my teacher was going to say that…