Elaboration Anecdotes/Scenarios

Why Elaborate in your Writing? To paint a picture for your reader To delve deeper into your topic To make connections between your ideas and examples of those ideas

What is an anecdote? A short narrative (a little story) inserted into an essay that develops an idea or argument.

Which is the anecdote and which is the example? Once, I went to the grocery store. It was very informative and I learned about the price of jelly beans. Here I was at the store. It seemed big, cavernous even, and I just need to find a small item. One, small, tasty item. A jelly bean. My research project this year was on the comparative prices of jelly beans, and I was going to succeed. I began my hunt as far away from the vegetable aisle as I could, figuring these were such vastly different food products they must repel each other like magnets.

Make this example into an anecdote. My favorite toy as a child was a teddy bear. It was brown and furry and I hugged it all the time until its head became shiny.

What is a Scenario? A hypothetical situation or event. It must include a hypothetical question AND the hypothetical answer. Hypothetical means imaginary. A hypothetical situation is a non-real or fake situation used as an example to make a point.

Which one is a scenario? If I couldn’t find the jelly beans, I wasn’t going to be happy. Imagine the horror if my beloved jelly beans remained out of my reach! I would cry, scream, throw myself about the store, scare small children with my cries of anguish. In other words, it just wouldn’t be good.

Change this to a scenario. I’ve always imagined that I would win the lottery and become a multi-millionaire. Remember! You need a “What if…” question and answer or an “Imagine this…” statement and answer.

A very specific kind of anecdote/scenario.. Remember the persuasive strategy of House that Jack Built? This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the rat That ate the malt That lay in the house that Jack built. This is the cat That killed the rat That ate the malt That lay in the house that Jack built…

Basically, this is about a ballooning cause and effect. Event A causes event B, which in turn causes event C, etc. If the rain would stop, my mood would lighten considerably. Then I would smile at every person I meet and I would spread my happiness. These people would be infected by my joy, and would in turn make other people happy. Soon, the whole world would be one ball of bliss.

Or….. What if there were aliens that landed on earth? The first response people would have might be to get scared and try to harm the aliens. This, in turn, would make the aliens mad and if they had superior weapons, they would fire back. Effectively, this response to aliens would cause the destruction of our beloved Earth.

Practice a House that Jack built anecdote/scenario Suggestions? What could be the ‘if’? What if Bigfoot walked in the door of the classroom? What if you won the lottery? What if the HSPI were cancelled?