The better question here is “why does it matter?”. Not to be snarky but to get at the reason for this semantic argument.
Words do matter but twisting definitions or deliberately misinterpreting their meaning is usually a ‘hidden’ effort at advancing an agenda. It is a not so passive aggressive move at undermining something at worst or a diversionary waste of time at best.
Now to the posted question: ‘document’ and ‘record’ are words that are not unique from each other. A document is “a piece of written, printed, or electronic matter that provides information or evidence or that serves as an official record.” It ranges from a book to a notecard or post it that has written or photograph ‘stuff’ on it. A procedure, work instruction, blank form and a filled out form (aka record) are all documents. A record is a specific type of document. A report is a very wordy record; it is a document that documents - or records - the results of some type of investigation.
So what is the argument really about?
