Moving on from kit lens.

[cynicaster]

You can absolutely get sharp pictures out of almost any kit lens, you just have to be hyper-attentive to the lenses sweet spot...

So true...

I don't know what everyone else has found, but I like to keep my 18-55 at roughly 35mm and between f5.6-f11. When I do this, I seem to get a noticeable bump in general image quality compared to my super-noob days when I was just indiscriminately going all over the map. So, when I'm using that lens, I stay as close to these settings as the situation will allow, and it has unquestionably helped.

For some reason, I think there is a subconscious tendency for noobs to tend toward extreme settings on their gear--the longest or shortest focal length on a zoom, wide open aperture or very small, etc., which is bad because those extremes bring the worst performance. That's why I think the whole "sweet spot" thing is one of the best lessons I've learned yet.