Writing a deadwood-free manuscript: tips from a Russian translator

摘要

Deadwood is “the unnecessarily difficult, unnecessarily long, or simply unnecessary phrases andwords that clog the arteries of professional writing” [1]. Deadwood language is needlessly verbose,circumlocutory, and hedgy [2,3], and authors who use it decrease the impact of their work.I am a Russian speaker of English who translates and edits for Russian researchers. I alwaysstrive to eliminate redundancy from my own writing and translations, and as an editor, I try toremove it from my clients’ manuscripts. Herein, I would like to share some of my experiencesrevising deadwood in Russian English scientific writing. Although the article is based on Russianexamples, it may also be of interest to non-Russians, as deadwood is a problem for all writers,regardless of their culture [4].The ability to identify superfluous words comes with time and effort. Anyone writing forpublication, especially in a non-native language, should understand that the degree to which awriter acquires this skill depends directly on his or her will to improve. This article offers tipsfor such improvement.