writing - How to reduce a paper's size for a page limited conference?

This is a usual problem of mine, I have a page limited conference (usually 8) and my paper is 15 pages long, or in a less dramatic case 10.

1. 
   

   How do you go about taking stuff off the paper. Do you have any rule of thumb?

   
   


2. 
   

   How do you know what is "irrelevant" enough for you to take it out of the paper?

   
   

Answer

Before you go about the longer process of deciding "what to delete," have you first tried to remove the "dead weight?" Academic writing is often quite leaden in style, and can be trimmed quite substantially. Following Strunk's commandment to "omit needless words" can often cut down a page or two out of your manuscript without sacrificing "actual" content.

If, having pruned your text, you find you still need to reduce things, ask yourself the following question:

What information do I want my readers to retain?

Then ask yourself:

What sections of the paper do not provide information necessary for the reader?

Those should be a fairly good guide about what to delete.