Journal #3

In Katriel and Farrell’s article titled “Scrapbooks as Cultural Texts: An American Art of Memory,” they state that the process of creating a scrapbook involves saving particular items from one’s everyday life for a future scrapbook. These saved items “are visible traces of events in the owner’s ongoing life.” From this, one could claim that scrapbooks can be viewed as a personal depiction of our lives. In this way, scrapbooks may be considered everyday writing because they consist of items from our everyday lives and also may be shared on a regular basis with others.

In regards to everyday writing, the article suggests that everyday writing encompasses items or works that have a place or function in our everyday lives. Through scrapbooking, we are telling our individual story through mementos or tokens that have a special meaning in our life. Personally, I think that scrapbooking epitomizes everyday writing because it documents what we do and say throughout our lives. On the other hand, a “zine,” which is defined as a self-made magazine of sorts, may also be considered everyday writing because it is something that one would encounter often (possibly everyday) and may even read through frequently. As Taylor noted, everyday writing cannot be taught in an institution. This fact solidifies the argument that scrapbooks and “zines” are examples of everyday writing because making a scrapbook cannot be taught in an institution and a “zine” is intended to be an original piece of work and not to be compared with a professionally published magazine.