With the body of the microphone, as with so many things, learn to have a light touch. Don't let the mic cable bang around or rustle on your clothes. Check that all your cables have good, noise-free connections at both ends. Monitor with headphones to check for these problems. For recording most sounds or voices you want the meter peaking a little above zero, never pegging at the limit.
Some machines are more forgiving than others.
In general, shoot for a record level between 5 and 8 on the mic input knob. Recording levels are critical. Setting levels is a balancing act between distortion at the top and noise at the bottom. Don't use the pause button. It uses up the batteries, and if you're listening through headphones, it can fool you into thinking you're recording when the tape isn't moving.