Jeff,

Burn-outs are basically overexposed areas in the image, and the simple way to avoid them is to underexpose. I have for many years had my digital cameras permanently set to underexpose 3/4 of an aperture step. Details from the dark areas can often be found in a photo-editing program once you get home, while burnt-out areas are lost forever. They have no detail, but are just white.

You can also try to avoid situations, which lead to burn-out areas like having reflections in the image, sharp light against you, very hard light/shadow combinations etc.

But my prime advice would be to generally underexpose.

Actually I have a whole article on exactly that subject on the bench right now, so if you have a little patience there will be even more details about this very important subject in digital photography.

Martin