What is an Anecdote?
An "anecdote" is a brief narrative often used in expository writing to illustrate a point or otherwise support the development of a topic sentence or sub-thesis. Additionally, they are used in introductions (and as echoes in conclusions) for their high interest value. Typically, anecdotes are confined to development within a paragraph, rarely exceeding more than two or three paragraphs in longer expository essays. Usually, they recount a single event and focus on the actions of a single character or personality. Therefore, the action is uncomplicated and its relationship to the main idea of the paragraph or passage clearly obvious.

Guidelines for Using Anecdotes

1) Use an anecdote in your introduction to create strong interest, particularly for a hostile or uninterested audience.

2) The mood conveyed by the anecdote should support emotions you want to stimulate in the reader.

3) Anecdotes you include should read naturally; don't try to write them like someone else might explain them.

4) Don't rely solely on a lot of anecdotes to prove your position or judgment; you need additional factual information as well to support your arguments.

5) Anecdotes act like parables; they're supposed to illustrate a point. For some, however, you may need to explain the point you are trying to make, but this should be the exception rather than the rule in any given composition.

6) You can use anecdotes in the body to boost the interest of your paper, that is, to break the monotony sometimes created with a lot of data, statistics, or highly general discussion.

7) Keep the anecdotes brief and uncomplicated--maybe to only a single paragraph or two.

8) Anecdotes really work well in cause-effect papers in which you are trying to explain why something happened in the past, reasons for a present incident or condition, or why something might happen in the future.

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