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I've mentioned before that taking a divot is not a goal but is rather a byproduct. Some shots produce divots and others don't but a divot is not something to "try for".
A divot is the result of the club's swing arc extending beyond the surface on which the ball is resting. When hitting a shot with a short iron, for example, the ball is usually placed a bit farther back in one's stance. When the club is swung, the idea is to contact the ball first which occurs before the club has reached the bottom of its arc of travel so it's just geometry that brings the club through the turf as it reaches the bottom of its arc and the slice of turf that is removed from the ground is just a function of that geometry.
Conversely, if one is using a long iron, the ball position is generally more forward in one's stance and this setup produces an arc in which the ball is still struck first but at the bottom of the arc instead of on the downward portion of it which then causes the clubhead to pick the ball cleanly off the turf resulting in no turf being disturbed and thus no divot taken.
"But the pro's always take a divot!"
Most of the time that's true. But in the case of tour pros, the current trend of "de-lofting" a club has something to do with that. When de-lofting a club, the ball is placed slightly farther back in one's stance than it would be if the goal were not to take loft "off" of the clubface. De-lofting is a combination of a more rearward ball position along with a delayed release which places the hands a bit ahead of the clubhead at impact which tends to take a degree or two off of the actual loft of the clubface. But again, it's a case of striking the ball before the club's swing arc has reached its bottom and thus the clubhead contacts the turf after impact.
But in either case, a divot is simply a result rather than an objective. Now that's not to say that one can't learn something about one's technique from a divot. The direction in which the turf flies after a shot, the direction in which the divot is pointing and even the depth of the divot itself can all be indicators of how effective one's technique may be for a given shot. But such information is more of a bonus than anything else. If the shot resulted in a divot, then you can enjoy the benefit of some forensic analysis. But if the shot doesn't (or shouldn't) produce a divot, then one will just have to rely on the results of the shot itself to aid in assessing technique.
It isn't "either / or", but simply "whether".
-JP | 
taking a divot
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