Each Wednesday, I usually write a post from my dissertation.

I asked my scrapbooker respondents to share with me 10-15 typical scrapbook pages and 5-10 atypical scrapbook pages. The scrapbookers showed me a mean of 40.35 pages with a range of 1 to 149. I anticipated studying 600-1,000 scrapbook pages, but was shown 1,493 scrapbook pages. Some pages were discussed in great detail and others were discussed very briefly. I let my respondents show me however many pages they wanted rather than cutting them off after a predetermined number of pages had been discussed. Most of my respondents seemed genuinely grateful to share their scrapbook pages with somebody who was truly interested in seeing them and hearing about them (more on this later), though some seemed skeptical as to why anyone else would be interested in their scrapbook pages.

I intentionally left the words atypical and typical open to interpretation and would simply respond that “they mean whatever you want them to mean” when respondents ask me to clarify these terms prior to and during our interview.

Some respondents compare their pages to unidentified others. For example, one respondent includes a certificate from her sorority and mentions this was a really important page to her “even though this is not what people think of when they first open a scrapbook.”

Respondents themselves often could not explain why they marked a page for our interview as atypical with a couple mentioning they should have taken notes so they would remember why they thought it was atypical. Having a negative reaction to the page is often the only reason some respondents consider a page to be atypical. They simply do not like how the page turned out.

Few respondents were able to show me scrapbook pages that they believed to be atypical compared to their typical style. Most respondents just showed me some of her or his scrapbook pages and while looking at them, I raised questions as to whether something seemed atypical or typical. The respondent often agreed with my assessment, but not always. The page may have just been atypical for that scrapbook or may have been atypical of their style at the time that album was made but now is very typical.

Few scrapbookers adhere to a set standard style on all of their pages making it even more difficult to consider much of anything typical. Only one respondent mentions certain features that are present on all of her scrapbook pages. She follows the “rule of three” in her design, includes at least one photograph, includes at a minimum the date, and includes a 3-D embellishment on each of her pages.

Could you identify atypical pages in your scrapbook albums? What makes them atypical?