Actually your code is like this...

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use warnings;
use strict;
my $dummy_scalar_1;
$dummy_scalar_1=`pdw`;
chomp $dummy_scalar_1;
print "$dummy_scalar_1";

nothing wrong with code except one. You should write

$dummy_scalar_1=`pwd`;
instead of
$dummy_scalar_1=`pdw`;
enjoy....