Vernacular vs Everyday Writing and Tombstones

            Vernacular writing is very distinct and specific to a community. It is what makes up daily conversations and even slang that may exist in a community. Outsiders may not understand the vernacular language and may be excluded from certain parts of vernacular writing in a community. Vernacular writing may not have an important purpose and may just be the language spoken in conversation but can also be important as well. Everyday writing, however, is more general and accessible by more individuals. It can be easily understood and does not discriminate from people in a specific community.  Everyday writing is influenced by a need for change, or exigency, and is carried out by an audience who actually makes the change that a rhetor wanted. Vernacular and everyday writing both have an important role in the lives of people because they both make up how we communicate. They both work to help people prove a point or have a conversation.

Vernacular writing and everyday writing both have audiences that are needed for the writing to be effective. Tombstones have the characteristics of vernacular writing. They are specific to a certain community in format, design, and language actually used on the tombstone. The way a community wants a person to be represented after death says a lot about the culture and practices of a certain society and may mean something different in another community where the practices differ and different wording on tombstones mean different things. Every culture has a different way of writing the text on the tombstone and how they are presented, therefore making it distinct for a certain community and more like vernacular writing than everyday writing.