What is an Anecdote Text?

An anecdote is a type of spoken or written text that deals with past incidents. The function is to retell an account or story of unusual or amusing incident. The incident happened in the past. The purposes are sharing with others an usual or amusing incident and entertaining others.

According to wikipedia, an anecdote is a story with a point. It is such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait.  It is completed with a certain evaluation to do.  Anecdote text is a story, like narrative texts, recount texts, or spoof stories, but with a coda in the end of the story plot. The existence of coda makes this anecdote differ from other story texts. 

 

Anecdote text is similar to narrative, spoof, and recount. What make different is the generic structure. Anecdote text is not only a matter of funny story like we often hear. Anecdote text, in term of text type, is an inspirational story, a story which brings a CODA which is included in the end of the text. A coda is the eflection on or evaluation of the incident that had happened

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

Generic Structure of Anecdote
1. Abstract
2. Orientation
3. Crisis
4. Reaction
5. Coda

Language Feature of Anecdote
1. Using exclamation words; it's awful!, it's wonderful!, etc
2. Using imperative; listen to this
3. Using rhetoric question; do you know what?
4. Using action verb; go, write, etc
5. Using conjunction of time; then, afterward
6. Using simple past tense

3  Famous Examples of Anecdote Text which Inspire

Now we will read some famous samples of texts which are labelled as anecdote. These samples are very famous stories which we often hear or read

1. Example of Anecdote Text: Blessing Behind Tragedy

There was a black family in Scotland years ago. They were Clark family with nine children. They had a dream to go to America. The family worked and saved. They were making plan to travel with their children to America. It had taken several years but finally they had saved enough money. They had gotten passport. They had booked seats for the whole family member in a new liner to America.
The entire family was full of anticipation and excitement with their new life in America. However few days before their departure, the youngest son was bitten by a dog. The doctor sewed up the boy. Because of the possibility of getting rabies, there were being quarantined for long days. They were in quarantine when the departure time came. The family dreams were dashed. They could not make the trip to America as they had planned.
The father was full of disappointed and anger. He stomped the dock to watch the ship leaved without him and his family. He shed tears of disappointment. He cursed both his son and God for the misfortune.
Five days latter, the tragic news spread throughout Scotland. The ship, the mighty Titanic, had shank. It took hundreds of passenger and crew with it. Titanic which had been called the unsinkable ship had sunk. It was unbelievable but it was.
The Clak family should have been on that ship, but because of the bitten son by a dog, they were left behind. When the father heard the news, he hugged the son and thanked him for saving the family. He thanked God for saving their lives. It was a blessing behind a tragedy.

This sample of anecdote text is taken from Look Ahead 2
 

Generic Structure Analysis
1. Abstract: Everybody has a dream. You have and so do I. When the dream will come true, there is something wrong last minute before it. What will we feel? What will we do?
2. Orientation: the Clak family lived in Scotland. They had dream to travel to America. They prepared well for their plan
3. Crisis: few days before they went to America, his youngest son was bitten by a dog. It made they were being quarantined. They had to forget their plan.
4. Incident: the family was full of disappointment and anger. The father was angry with his son and God. The family failed to travel to America and the father could not accept it.
5. Coda: the father thank to his son when he hear the ship sank. He thank to God because of saving the family from sinking. He thought leaving behind the ship was not a tragedy but a blessing.

2. Anecdote Text Example: From Bankrupt Candle to Best Seller Soap

In 1879, William and James' best seller was candles. They had begun business together in Cincinnati. While they were in peak of popularity, the candle company was in trouble as Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb. It looked as if their candle product would become obsolete. People would like to use light bulb and would not use candle anymore.
The fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since the candle products were now sold only for special occasions. The outlook of candle company appeared to be bleak and depressing for William and James. The situation was more miserable. Several months later the accident occurred. Without thinking one of the employees left to go to lunch and forgot to turn off the machine. Since the machinery was left in operation, air would work its way into the mixture.
However after discussing with his supervisor, the employee decided not to discard the mixture. Instead, he poured the mixture into frames and the soap hardened. Thus, the floating soap was born. He decided to give the soap a name that people could remember. Then the soap was named IVORY. This ivory soap became the mainstay of the William and James Company.
Amazingly, William and James began to receive letters from buyers of this "accidental" soap. They wanted more of the soap that floats. Ivory soap was introduced to the marketplace. Even though this interesting formula was one of their best products, they were perplexed as to how this happened. The mysterious formula for the floating soap was resolved when the lunchtime accident was revealed.

Note: this example of anecdote text is arranged from liraz.com and essortment.com.

3. Example of Anecdote Text: SNAKE IN THE BATHROOM

We had just moved into a new house, which had been empty for so long that everything was in a terrible mess. Anna and I decided that we would clean the bath first, so we set to, and turned on the tap.
Suddenly to my horror, a snake's head appeared in the plug hole. Then out slithered the rest of his long thin body. He twisted and turned on the slippery bottom of the bath, spitting and hissing at us.
For an instant I stood there quite paralyzed. Then I yelled for my husband, who luckily came running and killed the snake with the handle of a broom.
Anna, who was only three at the time, was quite interested in the whole business. Indeed I had to pull her out of the way or she'd probably have lean over the bath to get a better look.
We found out later that it was a black mamba, a poisonous kind of snake. It had obviously been fast asleep, curled up at the bottom of the nice warm water-pipe. It must have had an awful shock when the cold water came trickling down. But nothing to the shock I got. Ever since then I've always put the plug in firmly before running the bath water

Note: example / example of anecdote text is recomposed from karupin'blog

Those are the examples of anecdote text. These text are entertaining as well as inspiring. The story is tricky, unpredictable, and conclusive. It is ended with certain moral value lesson.

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