Proper Documentation in Technical Writing - How Important it Is

Proper documentation serves several reasons in a document. First, it gives proper credit to authors for their work. It avoids plagiarism. Second, it gives strength to the view one is trying to show, and thirdly, it gives the reader of the document an avenue to pursue further information of a subject if he or she chooses to do so.

There are seven most popular documentation styles: the APA style, the MLA style, and the Chicago style. There are also the four number styles which include the CBE, ACS, AMS and AIP styles. After citing an author one has to use the author's last name and the year the book was published at the end of the cite. The only fault in using APA style would be if one has two books that is authored by someone with the same last name and published in the same year, it would be hard to distinguish which book was cited. The number style does not have this problem because every instance one cites an author, a number is placed at the end of the cite. A main problem when using the number style is the addition of a cite in the middle of a paper when the paper is almost finished. One would have to go through the paper and change all the cite numbers after the addition avoiding using two same cite numbers. Then one would have to change the numbers on the reference or notes page at the end of the paper.

Another reason is the ethical and professional acknowledgment of any source used in your writing will prevent unintentional plagiarism as well as any copyright infringements. Documentation used properly, adds credibility to your document, and lends authority to your own personal ideas within your document. Documenting and citing your sources gives the audience the ability to learn in addition to having quick access on where to read more from a cited author.

Documentation is important in the technical writing process because it fulfills the ethical acknowledgment of authority, credibility, and efficiency for further study. Moreover, without proper documentation technical writers are dealing with issues such as conducting repeated research, going backwards to collect information from the same source with double time spent etc.