A writing exercise: eliminate your modifiers.

This advice actually came from book on writing fiction, but I think it works for most kinds of writing. During editing, see if you can get rid of as many adjectives and adverbs as possible. You will have to further revise to maintain the meaning you intended. However, by communicating the same information with as few modifiers as possible, you can't help but to write stronger copy.

Here's why. Adjectives and adverbs are shortcuts. Think of the phrase "We came across an old farmhouse." If a thousand people read that phrase, the writer is intending for the word "old" to mean the same thing to all thousand readers. By any definition, that makes it a cliche. If you remove the modifier, though, you are forced to describe the details of what makes the farmhouse "old" in order to convey the same meaning. It's more work on the writer's part, but the end result is worth the effort.

"We came across a farmhouse overgrown by thistle and black chokeberry bush. The wood panels were gray and the grain had split open on many of the panels, leaving deep grooves running lengthwise along the boards."

Better?