Is eliminating deadwood only for the scholar? Who should focus most on getting rid of deadwood? Should creative writers focus just as much on the content as the words that surround the topic?

I think yes. All writers can focus on the words that they are including, or ones they are choosing to exclude. Simplify your writing. Perfect it, no matter if you’re working on a dissertation or a creative writing poem.

Deadwood, or unnecessary parts of sentences and short passages are distracting. They detract from the meaning of the subject(s).

Don’t to try sound overly smart. Just use a word that you would speak out loud in a normal daily conversation, over using a dictionary or thesaurus to find words that you’ve never spoken aloud.

On that note, you can read a section out loud to make it easier if need be. The interesting factor is that what one person considers necessary can be very different than what another person does. Also, the words that you take out may make a passage boring. Don’t cut too much. Glaser tells the reader that too much would be fifty percent. For example, if you have a two page proposal, condensing and cutting it down into one focused final version would be good. Any more cuts, though, would be excessive.

I took an advanced composition class in college, and the book I read during it had many good tips and pieces of advice about how to avoid deadwood. Reading Joe Glaser’s Understanding Style helped me realize that I should try harder to take out the unneeded words.

One thing that is frustrating, though, is that I see deadwood everywhere after learning about how much unnecessary fillers are included in everyday writing! I see it in my own writing, in the writing of other people, and in books (occasionally); it is hard because I cannot look past it without wanting to delete everything that's unnecessary. For my own writing, that's a great thing. When I'm reading other things, it distracts me a bit. But I am glad that I learned about avoiding deadwood and eliminating it after writing a first draft to maintain only the crucial information, and not keeping things that do not strengthen the argument or purpose.

Of course, a year later, I still find myself writing and rewriting things that are most important, because I tend to use “filler words” without even thinking about it. But edits following the writing process make the reader understand the subject more easily while providing a more concise paragraph or couple of sentences. The Glaser method simply states that if you can take it out of the sentence, do it. After writing a piece, or paragraph, (or any length of writing) try to take out words by putting brackets around the words that could be taken out of the sentence, and it would still make sense. Sometimes, a whole phrase is unnecessary. Most people use phrases in their writing without noticing, especially with idioms.

Glaser advises to avoid overwriting, but also take note to stay away from underwriting. A writer must think about what they are writing and make the call about how much they should include and exclude. It really depends on each case. Even though paying attention to deadwood is helpful, there is no “right” answer when it comes to the question of deadwood.