Anecdote (Concept - Example)

Level: English for Senior High School
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Explanation

Social Function	To share with others an account of an unusual or amusing incident.
Generic Structure	Abstract: signals the retelling of an unusual incident. Orientation: set the scene. Crisis: provide details of the unusual incident. Reaction: reaction to crisis. Coda: optional - reflection on or evaluation of the incident.
Significant Lexicogrammatical Features	Use the exclamations, rhetorical questions and intensifiers (really, very, quite, etc.) to point up the significance of the events. Use of material processes to tell what happened. Use of temporal conjunction.

Example

Read the text below attentively.

Snake in the Bath

How would you like to find a snake in your bath? A nasty one too!

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 had lent over the bath to get a better look!

Ever since then I've always put the plug in firmly before running the bath water.