ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Stories are a really great way for people to connect to each other. We all love stories [Teacher telling a story to kids]

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– listening to them and telling them.

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But, well… Okay, sometimes, your grandma’s stories can get a little long. They drag on

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and on and you sort of stop listening and start daydreaming about cotton candy. [Girl daydreaming and cotton candy appears on a bed]

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…What? Just us?

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Well, what if we told you that there’s a type of story that never does that? A type

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of story that’s supposed to be short?

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Well, guess what? There totally is. It's called an anecdote, and it's the solution to long-winded

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granny stories everywhere. An anecdote is a short, vivid report of an [Coop discussing anecdotes]

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amusing or otherwise memorable incident in a real person's life, or even about a fictional

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situation.

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It isn't so much a story with a beginning, middle, and end as it is just a brief recollection [Book flicking through pages]

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of a memory or experience. It has the makings of a story, but it cuts out all the fluff.

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Hopefully not the cotton candy though. We love that kind of fluff.

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So how do we go about coming up with an anecdote?

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Well first, we'd need to make sure we have the Five Ws of the situation all figured out. [W letters dropped into a pot]

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That means that for whatever memory or experience the anecdote is about, we need to know the

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who, what, where, when and why of it.

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Who was involved? What happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen? And why did [Arrow points to the five W's]

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it happen?

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Just because some people like to tell stories without knowing all the details first *coughGRANNYcough*

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doesn’t mean you have to do the same. The next step is to gather the sensory information

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regarding the anecdote. Things like smell, touch, taste, and sound are all useful when [Examples of sensory information]

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you want to tell an anecdote, because connecting to people's senses allows them to better picture

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themselves in the situation. Let's look at an example of an anecdote from [Girl taking a sip of soup]

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writer Jerry Spinelli.

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“When I was growing up, the first thing I wanted to be was a cowboy. That lasted till

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I was about ten. Then I wanted to be a baseball player. Preferably shortstop for the New York

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Yankees. I played Little League in junior high and

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high school. I only hit two home runs in my career, but I had no equal when it came to

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standing at shortstop and chattering to my pitcher: “C'mon, baby, hum the pea.” Unfortunately,

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when I stood at the plate, so many peas were hummed past me for strikes that I decided

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to let somebody else become shortstop for the Yankees.”

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As we can see, this isn't a full story because it doesn't have a real beginning, middle, [Page with beginning, middle and end]

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or end. It does, however, recall a memory from Jerry’s childhood, making it a great

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example of an anecdote.

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So step one – we gather the five Ws of the anecdote.

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Who is it about? Jerry Spinelli. What is it about? Jerry playing Little League

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Baseball in high school. When does it take place? When he was in high

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school. Duh. Where? In his home town, naturally.

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And why did what happen actually happen? Well, because he wasn't too great at playing baseball.

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Which is okay, because it turns out that he is great at writing.

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Then we move on to step two. Do we see any sensory information here? [Sensory information examples]

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Sure! He tells us about how he would chirp and yell at the pitcher, which definitely

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gives us some insight into what it sounded like out on that field – even if it wasn't

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too pleasant. So now you know everything you need to know

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about anecdotes.

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We don't want to tell you how to live your life, but now may be a perfect time to tell

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your grandma what you learned in school today. [

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Though we're sure she has some long-winded story about anecdotes, too. Good ol' granny. [Little Red Riding Hood walks to Grandma's room and a wolf is in the bed]

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