Anecdotes are brief stories about events or experiences. If they are relevant to the argument, well told, and true to life, they can provide convincing support. To be relevant, an anecdote must strike readers as more than an entertaining diversion; it must seem to make an irreplaceable contribution to an argument. A well-told story is easy to follow, and the people and scenes are described memorably, even vividly. A true-to-life anecdote seems believable, even if the experience is foreign to readers’ experiences.
The following anecdote appeared in an argument taking a position on gun control. The writer, an essayist, poet, and environmentalist who is also a rancher in South Dakota, always carries a pistol and believes that other people should have the right to do so:
One day, while driving to the highway mailbox, I saw a vehicle parked about halfway to the house. Several men were standing in the ditch, relieving themselves. I have no objection to emergency urination; we always need moisture. But I noticed they’d also dumped several dozen beer cans, which can blow into pastures and slash a cow’s legs or stomach.
As I drove slowly closer, the men zipped their trousers ostentatiously while walking toward me, and one of them demanded what the hell I wanted.
“This is private land. I’d like you to pick up the beer cans.”
To support her argument, Hasselstrom tells an engaging anecdote and, in the last paragraph, explains its relevance.
“What beer cans?” said the belligerent one, putting both hands on the car door and leaning in my window. His face was inches from mine, and the beer fumes were strong. The others laughed. One tried the passenger door, locked; another put his foot on the hood and rocked the car. They circled, lightly thumping the roof, discussing my good fortune in meeting them and the benefits they were likely to bestow upon me. I felt small and trapped; they knew it.
“The ones you just threw out,” I said politely.
“I don’t see no beer cans. Why don’t you get out here and show them to me, honey?” said the belligerent one, reaching for the handle inside my door.
“Right over there,” I said, still being polite, “—there and over there.” I pointed with the pistol, which had been under my thigh. Within one minute the cans and the men were back in the car and headed down the road.
See Chapter 14, Narrating, and Chapter 2, Remembering an Event, for more information about narrating anecdotes.
I believe this incident illustrates several important principles. The men were trespassing and knew it; their judgment may have been impaired by alcohol. Their response to the polite request of a woman alone was to use their size and numbers to inspire fear. The pistol was a response in the same language. Politeness didn’t work; I couldn’t intimidate them. Out of the car, I’d have been more vulnerable. The pistol just changed the balance of power.
—LINDA M. HASSELSTROM, “Why One Peaceful Woman Carries a Pistol”
Most readers would readily agree that this anecdote is well told: It has many concrete, memorable details; there is action, suspense, climax, resolution, and even dialogue. It is about a believable, possible experience. Finally, the anecdote is clearly relevant to the author’s argument about gun control.
Evaluate the way an anecdote is used in paragraph 16 of Amitai Etzioni’s essay “Working at McDonald’s” in Chapter 6 (pp. 261–62). Consider whether the story is well told and true to life. Decide whether it seems to be relevant to the whole argument. Does the writer make the relevance clear? Does the anecdote support Etzioni’s argument?