By the Light of Anecdote

In 1983, when the Dutch author Lize Stilma was invited to pub lish some of her wonderfully evocative narratives in Phenorne nology + Pedagogy, she was pleased that the journal would translate and publish her stories. However, she did not like the suggestion that her stories would be gathered in a section under the title "Anecdotes." Although she did not say as much, the word anecdote seemed perhaps too plain, too everyday, too ver nacular, too low-bred, too mundane. Anecdote is not a common ly accepted form of literary expression. Among authors, the notion of anecdote generally receives low status. In the be havioral social sciences, too, the employment of anecdote is avoided or frowned on. For behavioral scientists, the presence of anecdotes in research reports may indicate possible flaws in the evidential basis of scientific reasoning.