Writing Practice — Starting an essay with an anecdote

1. Introduction

Using a short anecdote is another way to start your essay. If you have a relevant anecdote ready, using it in the introduction will make your essay more interesting and attract the attention of your reader. Be sure your anecdote is short, to the point and relevant to your topic.

2. An Example

Sarah Johnson remembers coming across her first auction twenty years ago, while out for a weekend drive in the country. She pulled into a crowded dirt lot and wandered into the crowd. There was a mouth-watering smell of barbecued pork and fried dough, set to the background music of the auctioneer’s sing-song chanting. Hours later, she came back to her car, lugging a chest full of vintage fabrics and a life-long love of auctions. “It’s an addiction,” says Sarah, a high school teacher, and one of a growing number of auction devotees. (This anecdote, which is not necessarily about a real person, is the introduction to an article about auctions.)

3. Homework for Writing

You are required to start an essay entitled Help the Homeless with an anecdote. In this essay, you will try to persuade your readers that people should have sympathy for the homeless because many of them suffer from misfortune and need help.

Suggested Writing:

I know that many of you think the homeless are a lost cause and that they are lazy, good for nothings. Well, of course, that might be true for some of them, but let me tell you about Dave. I went to school with Dave for three years until Grade 6. It was just before our exams when Dave’s mum and dad hit problems! From then on, Dave’s life began to fall apart. He just wasn’t able to cope. By the time he was eighteen, when I was sitting for my college entrance examination, Dave was on the streets ...