: Re: Is it overkill to follow style-guides for technical writing? I currently work for an engineering company as an electrical engineer. A good chunk of my time is spent writing testing reports or

@BetL639

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Not overkill at all. However, the Chicago Manual of Style is not really ideal for technical writing (and is intended as a look-it-up reference, not a cover-to-cover read). It is a good guide to general, formal writing for Americans. For a more international audience, the equivalent is The Oxford Guide to Style (a.k.a. New Hart's Rules, also published as half of Oxford Style Manual).
The principal problem with Chicago is that its editors are strongly opposed to the use of logical quotation (i.e., including within the quotation marks nothing that was not present in the original quotation) except for "textual criticism" and "computer code and commands". They otherwise recommend nothing but American journalism- and fiction-style quotation punctuation, in which periods (stops, dots) and commas are always placed inside the quotation mark even if they don't logically belong there. This is a terrible idea in any technical, or other precise, form of writing, though it remains favored by the AP Stylebook and other American journalistic style manuals.
If technical writing is your job, I'd advise owning the Chicago, Oxford, and AP manuals (as well as any other style guides you may need, e.g the legal Bluebook and Redbook, and Oxford equivalent, OSCOLA, which is a free PDF; and/or the CSE, AMA and APA science/medical style guides). Adapt your style as necessary. For business communication to Americans, use Chicago; for PR materials intended for Americans, use AP; for an international audience, rely on Oxford (also when quoting with high precision, e.g. typed commands or the labels on device controls). Turn to CSE, etc., as needed for scientific writing. You might also be called upon sometimes to comply with MLA Style Manual for some purposes. These books are all a good investment for any professional writer of non-fiction. So is updating them to new editions as they are released; sometimes the changes are significant (though take a few years to propagate). Effective use of language is a moving target.

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