Title: Anecdotal Evidence in Literature: Definition & Examples | Study.com
Headings: Anecdotal Evidence in Literature: Definition & Examples
Anecdotal Evidence in Literature: Definition & Examples
Telling the Story
The Purpose of the Anecdote
Examples and Explanations
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Anecdotal Evidence in Literature: Definition & Examples
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Content: Anecdotal evidence is the opposite of scientific evidence because the former is driven by personal opinion and the latter is based on experimentation, methodology, and objective verification. For this reason, the anecdotal literary device is popular in crime fiction because it allows for conclusions to be questionable, precisely the way crime authors like it. Television schedules are filled with crime dramas (often based on crime series books such as the 'Bones' series based on novels by Kathy Reich) employing witnesses who deliver conflicting stories. Investigators then take on the task of using evidence to prove the truth and solve the crime, but the fun in the story is using the first person observations to draw the viewer into the story. Examples and Explanations
Norman Cousins, the author of 'The Healing Heart: Antidotes to Panic and Helplessness,' (Avon books, 1984), tells us: ' The writer makes his living by anecdotes. He searches them out and carves them as the raw materials of his profession. No hunter stalking his prey is more alert to the presence of his quarry than a writer looking for small incidents that cast a strong light on human behavior.' Cousins' insight reinforces how all writing is based on stories and the genre is determined by how those stories are used.