1. Using this Stylized Anecdote Instruction
● Write an anecdote with a particular style. Your style should govern the way
you write your anecdote. That is, your style should lead you to say surprising,
interesting things, things we could not expect you to say based solely on the
action in your anecdote. It should lead you to use fun words and phrases. If
your style asks you to take on a particular type of person, we should get a
sense of that person’s attitude and experience.
● Sample Stylized Anecdote
Narrative Style
One day at about midday in the Parc Monceau district, on the back platform of a more-or-less full S bus (now No. 84), I observed a person with a very long neck who was wearing a soft felt hat which had a plaited cord round it instead of a ribbon. This individual suddenly addressed the man standing next to him, accusing him of purposely treading on his toes every time any passengers got on or off. However, he quickly abandoned the argument and threw himself onto a seat which had become vacant.
Two hours later I saw him in front of the Gare Saint-Lazare engaged in earnest conversation with a friend who was advising him to
reduce the space between the lapels of his overcoat by getting a competent tailor to raise the top button. Metaphorically Style
At the heart of the day, tossed among the shoal of traveling sardines in a white-bellied beetle, a chicken with a long, featherless
neck suddenly harangued one of their number, a peace-abiding one, and its parlance, moist with protest, was unleashed into the air.
Then, attracted by an empty space, the fledgling made a dash towards it.
In a bleak, urban desert, I saw it again that self-same day, drinking the cup of humiliation over a mere button.
Zoological Style
In the dog days, while I was in a bird cage at feeding time, I noticed a young puppy with a neck like a giraffe who, ugly and
venomous as a toad, wore yet a precious beaver upon his head. This queer fish obviously had a bee up his bonnet and was quite
bats, he started yak-yakking at a wolf in sheep’s clothing claiming that he was treading on dogs with his beetle-crushers. But the
cock got a flea in his ear; that foxed him, and quiet as a mouse he ran like a hare for a perch.
I saw him again in front of the zoo with a young buck who was telling him to bear in mind a certain drill about his pelage.
Tactile Style
Buses are soft to the touch, especially if you take them between the thighs and caress them with both hands, from the head towards
the tail, from the engine towards the platform. But when you find yourself on this platform, then you perceive something rougher and
harsher, which is the bar, or handrail, and sometimes something rounder and more elastic which is a buttock. Sometimes there are
two of these and then you put the sentence into the plural. You can also take hold of a tubular, palpitating object that disgurgitates
idiotic sounds, or even a utensil with plaited spirals that are softer than a rosary, silkier than a barbed wire, more velvety than rope,
and slenderer than a cable. Or your finger can even touch human stupidity, slightly viscous and gummy on account of the heat.
Then, if you are patient for an hour or two, in front of a bumpy station you can dip your tepid hand into the exquisite freshness of a
corozo button which is not in its right place.
Feminine
What a bunch of clots! Today round about midday (goodness it was hot, just as well I’d put Odorono under my arms, otherwise my
little cretonne summer dress that my little dressmaker who makes things specially cheaply for me would have had it) near the Parc
Monceau (it’s nicer than the Luxembourg where I send my son, the idea of getting alopecia at his age) the bus came, it was full, but I
made eyes at the conductor and got in. Naturally all the idiots who’d got numbered tickets made a fuss, but–pffft–the bus had got
going with me in it. It couldn’t have been fuller. I was terribly squashed, and not one of the men who had a seat inside dreamt of
offering it to me. Ill-mannered lot! There was a man behind me who was quite smart (it’s the latest thing, a plait round a felt hat

instead of a ribbon, I’m sure Adam must have written up this new fashion), unfortunately his neck was too long for my liking. Some of
my friends claim that if one part of a man’s body is bigger than the average (for instance a nose that’s too big) it’s a sign of marked
capacities in another direction. But I don’t believe a word of it. In any case, this gentlemanly creature seemed to have the permanent
fidgets and I was wondering what he was waiting for and when he was going to say something or extend an exploratory hand. He
must be shy, I was thinking. I wasn’t so wrong at that. Because all of a sudden he started to pick on another man, who looked
horrible, by the way, and who was purposely treading on his toes. If I’d been that young man I’d have punched him on the nose but
instead he quickly went and sat down the moment he saw a vacant seat and what’s more it didn’t occur to him for a single moment
to offer it to me. The things that happen in the country of gallantry!
A bit later, I was passing the Gare Saint-Lazare (this time I had a seat) I caught sight of him arguing with a friend (quite a
nice-looking boy I must say) about the cut of his coat (extraordinary idea to wear an overcoat on such a hot day but it does make
you look correctly dressed of course). I looked at him but the idiot didn’t even recognize me.
Abusive
After a stinking wait in the vile sun I finally got into a filthy bus where a bunch of bastards were squashed together. The most
bastardly of these bastards was a pustulous creature with a ridiculously long windpipe who was sporting a grotesque hat with a cord
instead of a ribbon. This pretentious puppy started to moan because an old bastard was pounding his plates with senile fury, but he
soon chickened out and made off in the direction of an empty seat that was still damp with the sweat of its previous occupant.
Two hours later, my unlucky day, I came upon the same bastard holding forth with another bastard in front of that nauseating
monument they call the Gare Saint-Lazare. They were yammering about a button. Whether he has his furuncle raised or lowered, I
said to myself, he’ll still be just as lousy, the dirty bastard.
2. Read these 2 Stylized Anecdote
Climbing Mountain (Johnathan Blalock)
He stood before the base of the precipice. His eyes gazed towards the peak of his ambition which sung a siren’s calling
for the young man to proceed, for this would be his maiden ascent. As the man peered at the zenith of the world, his
nerves which quaked began to harden like steel. He gaped one last time at the pinnacle of his conquest as he began his
inaugural climb.The man gripped stones and crags, their surface was sharp and jagged. They tore at the man’s hands
and feet as he ascended the rockfaces. The garish sun beamed oppressively overhead. The man soon found himself
being blinded by searing perspiration as it seeped into his eyes attempting to blind him to his goal. The keen rocks soon
left the man seeping crimson upon the precipitous advance. The anticipation of the apex allowed the man to endure the
scouring of the elements. The prominence of the zenith was very near. The herculean effort the man had endured would
soon come to an end. The expedition had polished the man’s techniques. His grip was sturdy, and his feet were fleet. As
the man made the final approach his body soon breached the mist of the clouds at the apex. The young man stood
gallantly atop the zenith of the world. Though scoured by the monolith his eyes held a fiery mettle forge by his endeavor.
His gaze held strong upon the expanse of the world; he raised his fist to the cosmos in declaration of his Sisyphean feat.
Numeric (Joshua Quick)
Surrounded by five hundred of my brothers-in-arms we prepared for the coming battle. That evening, three well-decorated
soldiers explained that we would be mobilizing in less than a single day. We were to confront a force roughly fifty percent greater
than our own. Some of us would die before seeing even twenty years of life, less than half of our life expectancy. A comrade once
told me that he was the last man in his family capable of fighting after the war claimed the lives of his four brothers. Four wives left
without husbands, and ten children yearning for the triumphant return of their father that would never come. Sixteen hours before my
potential departure from this world, that story was all I could think of. The thoughts cut my sleep in half.
At 4:00 AM I awoke to frantic shuffling. I walked outside of my quarters to see dozens of our own men searching for
something. The battle wasn’t supposed to occur for another twelve hours, something must have happened. In the night, three of our
comrades had deserted. They were only sixteen years old. They understood that being two years away from graduating didn’t mean
much when your life had an eighty percent chance of ending the next day. The search for the boys ended abruptly as we decided to
save our energy for the battle.
Face to face, we met our enemy in a field separated by fifty yards. Even through the gunsmoke and mist of blood, I
watched my platoon of twenty men die. Losing two fingers, I left the battle as less than I had entered it. Two hours later I awoke, but
only years later did I finally realize the truth. In the end, there were zero victors. Only a handful of broken men and one thousand
corpses.
3. WRITE 2 CRITIQUES ACCORDING TO THIS TEMPLATE

Length
100 words for each anecdote
Instructions
Describe the plusses and minuses of every story you read. Every story has plusses and minuses. Find both.
Follow the template below. Answer the questions with something more substantial than “yes” or “no,” and
back up your answers with examples of effective or ineffective writing from the story, you should easily
meet the word-count requirement.
Template
● Structure (look atStylized Anecdote structure above): Does the structure have the primary
elements required by the assignment? (For an anecdote, for instance, does it have a phrase
like “one day,” and is it actually focused on one incident)? Does the writing build toward an
interesting finish? Do all parts of the structure fit, or should a part be tossed by the wayside?
● Content: Does the writing contain everything required by the assignment? What parts of the
content are interesting? What parts are not? What could be built up or reworked in a
revision?
● Language: On a basic level, could you understand the writing? Would you describe the
language as substandard, average, or legitimately interesting?
● Terms of Assignment: Overall, has the writer successfully met the terms of the assignment?
Has the writer successfully navigated the constraints? Suggest ways she could better
navigate those constraints.