What is a Recount Text

Key Points

DEFINITION:
Recount texts tell a series of events and assess their significance in some ways. There is no impediment among the participants and that differentiates from narratives.

Social function is to retell something that happened as events or to retell the purpose of informing or entertaining.

Generic structure of analysis

• Orientation refers to Introducing the participant (who) provides the setting place or sets the scene (where), time (when) and state (what), it uses first person point of view.
• Events refers to describing a series of event which happened in other word it means sequence of events in the order in which they happened. This a record of events usually recounted in chronological order; personal comments and/or evaluative remarks, which are interspersed throughout the record of events;

Events refers to stating the writer’s personal note, it is the ending of the story containing the writer’s comment. In other words, it is a final personal comment or reflection

Language Feature Analysis

• Notch words capture reader’s interest 
• May use the first person or using personal participant; I
• Most often in the past tense, but may be in the instantaneous present for effect or using action verb such as moved, left, walked, made, etc
• Contrast sentences length: simple, compound or complex
• Short sentences increase tension; longer sentences provide contrast and detail
• Time words connect events or chronological connectives; (e.g. As soon as….; Eventually…; Then…; A few moments later, and, suddenly…)
• Noun groups describe people and places (e.g. the noisy children playing in the park) 
• May include reported or direct speech (He said …….)

Note 

Narrative and recount in some ways are similar. Both are telling something in the past so narrative and recount usually apply PAST TENSE; whether Simple Past Tense, Simple Past Continuous Tense, or Past Perfect Tense. The ways narrative and recount told are in chronological order using time or place. Commonly narrative text is found in story book; myth, fable, folklore, etc while recount text is found in biography. The thing that makes narrative and recount different is the structure in which they are constructed. Narrative uses conflicts among the participants whether natural conflict, social conflict or psychological conflict. In some ways narrative text combines all these conflicts. In the contrary, we do not find these conflicts inside recount text. Recount applies series of event as the basic structure.

Example Recount: 

“London….. We are coming!”
Mr. NotoWiharjo’s family was on vacation. They are Mr. and Mrs. Noto Wiharjo with two daughters. They went to London. They saw their travel agent and booked their tickets. They went to the British Embassy to get visas to enter Britain. They had booked fourteen days tour. This includes travel and accommodation. They also included tours around London.
They boarded a large Boeing flight. The flight was nearly fourteen hours. On the plane the cabin crews were very friendly. They gave them news paper and magazine to read. They gave them food and drink. There was a film for their entertainment. They had a very pleasant flight. They slept part of the way.
On arrival at Heathrow Airport, they had to go to Customs and Immigration. The officers were pleasant. They checked the document carefully but their manners were very polite. Mr. Noto Wiharjo and his family collected their bags and went to London Welcome Desk. They arranged the transfer to a hotel.
The hotel was a well-known four-star hotel. The room had perfect view of the park. The room had its own bathroom and toilet. Instead of keys for the room, they inserted a key-card to open the door. On the third floor, there was a restaurant serving Asian and European food. They had variety of food. The two week in London went by fast. At the end of the 14-day, they were quite tired but they felt very happy. .