Anecdotes

Anecdote is a text which retells funny and unusual incidents in fact or imagination. Its purpose is to entertain the readers.

General structure of anecdote:

• Abstract, retelling of an unusual incident.
• Orientation, setting the scene and introduce the participants.
• Crisis, provide details of unusual incident.
• Incident, reaction of crisis.
• Coda, reflection on or evaluation of the incident (it is optional).

Features of anecdote:

• Using exclamation words, e.g. it’s awful, that’s great, that’s impossible, etc.
• Using imperative, e.g. listen to, etc.
• Using rhetorical question.
• Using action verb.
• Using saying verb and direct speeches.
• Using conjunction of time, e.g. then, afterward, while, etc.
• Using simple past tense.

Example of anecdote:

Scarecrow

I am from a big family. I have two aunts and one uncle whose houses are so far from mine. I am the oldest child and have three brothers and one sister. I make many friends and love them very much. Everyday, after school, as village children, we gather together in our village’s playing field. In there, we can play football, play kites, play the “go back through the door” game, marbles game, and some other village children’s games. We are very closed friends.

One day, Thinky, my cousin, said, “Hi friends, you know that my father is a clever farmer. He had created scarecrow that made the birds never approach our paddy-field anymore. They just watched it from three miles away. They didn’t dare to pick even a grain of rice,” he boasted. “That’s great,” said one of my friends. “That’s nothing,” said Pinky, a big talk friend, too. “My father had created a so big-talk created a so big-dark scarecrow that the birds returned all of rice they had picked some days ago.”