Beginner Gardening: How do you prune a schefflera (umbrella plant)?, 5 by Sonya1brown1

Sonya1brown1 wrote:
So I just inherited this plant from my grannie who moved into a nursing home. She told me it needs to be cut down because it\'s gotten all scraggly.... I will whole heartedly admit that I can kill even a fake plant lol. So my question is, I\'m unsure of how far down to cut it. I\'m afraid that if I follow her advice(which is to about 6\") that I\'ll kill it because that part of the stem is brown not green....Please help, this plant is almost 25y/o and it\'ll just kill me if I kill it..... I\'m including a picture!! Thanks.... The broken off dead stalk was like that when I got it.