Anecdote

A.     An anecdote is a short and amusing but serious account, which may depict a real/fake incident or character.

B.     Social function of anecdote is to retell an unusual or amusing incident, not only to make people laughter but also to reveal the truth its self.

C.     Generic structure

1.      Abstract

Statement introducing the topic closely related with the title and usually inform rhetorical questions at first.

2.      Orientation

Is part where the writer tell who, when, where the story happens.

3.      Crisis

Is a part of unusual incident happens

4.      Reaction

Tells how the subject of the story reacts to the incident

5.      Coda

Is the closing part of the story. The writer may tell how the subject solve problem and the end of the incident

D.     Language features

1.      Using exclamations, rhetorical question or intensifiers

2.      Using material process

3.      Using temporal conjunction

E.      Example

How Would You Like to Find a Snake in You Bath?

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