Robert Riter

University of Alabama

Authoring Egodocuments: Letter-Writing Manuals and Documentary Creativity

This paper is not about generative AI, but is informed by reflections on AI tools and the questions they present regarding originality, the creativity, and the authorship of personal documentation. Contemporary generative technologies are the most recent expression of tools created by humans to assist in their analysis and creation of documentation, including personal documentation.

In this essay, I examine how letter-writing manuals have operated as a similar generative technology. Templates and documentation served as an initial data set which authors used in creating personal documentation intended to communicate individual thoughts, feelings, ideas, and sentiments. Through interactions with these tools, writers/records creators transformed impersonal language into documentation imbued with very personal meaning. This examination of 19th-century American letter-writing manuals provides a context for examining definitions regarding authorship, originality, individuality, and how these traits come to be expressed in egodocuments.

It is important to avoid overly simplistic comparisons. There are distinct differences between generative AI applications and letter-writing manuals. However, I argue that they can be viewed as being part of the same genealogy, and that an examination of earlier expressions of tools intended to support documentation creation merits examination as a topic in book and archival history, and in helping to contextualize questions presented by our contemporary technologies.