Scrapbooking and Everyday Writing - Suzann Slaunwhite

     Scrapbooks are the tools used to remember extraordinary events in our lives and place them into an everyday context. Katriel and Farrell dig deep into the meaning and reasons behind scrapbooks and their research proves how much scrapbooks are everyday writing. Like all everyday writing they have a purpose. Scrapbooks as well as Zines are used primarily to remember specific events and the emotions that accompanied them. The audiences of these materials feel the memories and remember those special days, whether it is a day at a park, a baby's footprints, or a trip to Spain. Scrapbooks and Zines have meaning; they are aesthetically pleasing and usually consist of a lot of effort. Scrapbooks and Zines give us insight into everyday writing that it doesn't have to be messy or informal to be everyday writing. These mediums are used in a daily context to remember people, places, and events. Katriel and Farrell prove that scrapbook making is in itself a genre and its own culture that this genre is everyday writing. Furthermore, they contribute to the conversation about the different ranges of scrap booking. They delete the common comment that it is gender specific and that how important and crucial it is and how it really illustrates peoples lives. These pieces are creative and invoke our inner child when we are forced to be creative and express to our self the true meaning of these important and memorable events. All aspects of everyday writing are included with scrapbooks and zines. There is the exigency: seeing and remembering the event and provoking the emotions, Genre: scrapbooks are in a sense its own genre because they have evolved so much and in many different ways, and the audience: readers of the book are usually family members or friends and they feel the experiences the scrapbook is proposing. Scrapbooks and Zines give a tangible aspect to our lives and nothing is more every day than are actual lives.