RECOUNT TEXT
1.
Definition
of Recount
Recount is a text which retells events
or experiences in the past. Its purpose is either to inform or to entertain the
audience. There is no complication among the participants and that
differentiates from narrative
2.
Generic
Structure of Recount
1. Orientation: Introducing the
participants, place and time
2. Events: Describing series of event
that happened in the past
3. Reorientation: It is optional.
Stating personal comment of the writer to the story
3.
Language
Feature of Recount
• Introducing personal participant; I,
my group, etc
• Using chronological connection; then,
first, etc
• Using linking verb; was, were, saw,
heard, etc
• Using action verb; look, go, change,
etc
• Using simple past tense
4.
Examples
and structures of the text
Our trip to the Blue
Mountain
|
|
Orientation
|
On Friday we went to the Blue
Mountains. We stayed at David and Della’s house. It has a big
garden with lots of colourful flowers and a tennis court.
|
Events
|
On Saturday we saw the Three Sisters and went on
the scenic railway. It was scary. Then, Mummy and I went shopping with Della.
We went to some antique shops and I tried on some old hats.
On Sunday we went on the
Scenic Skyway and it rocked. We saw cockatoos having a shower.
|
Reorientation
|
In the afternoon we went home.
|
Mr.
Richard’s family was on vacation. They are Mr. and Mrs. Richard with two sons.
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. Richard 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.
B. Between Recount and Narrative
Something
which happened in the past is the main resource to compose both recount and
narrative text. In writer's point of view, the thing is an experience. It can
be what the writer has done, hear, read, and felt. Composing recount and
narrative is retelling the experiences of the past event to be a present event.
What does recount differ from narrative?
The
easiest way to catch the difference is analyzing the generic structure. Recount
text presents the past experiences in order of time or place; what happened on
Sunday, then on Monday, the on Tuesday. In simple way, recount describes series
of events in detail. It does not expose the struggle on how to make them
happen. The event happened smoothly. On the other hand, narrative introduces
crises and how to solve them. Narrative text always appear as a hard potrait of
participant's past experience. It reveals the conflict among the participants.
Cinderella's conflicts with her step mother and sister are the example. The
conflict is the most important element in a narrative text. Narrative without
comflicts is not narrative any more.
There
were so many places to see in Bali that my
friend decided to join the tours to see as much as possible. My friend stayed
in Kuta on arrival. He spent the first three days swimming and surfing on Kuta
beach. He visited some tour agents and selected two tours. The first one was to
Singaraja, the second was to Ubud.
On
the day of the tour, he was ready. My friend and his group drove on through
mountains. Singaraja is a city of about 90 thousands people. It is a busy but
quiet town. The street are lined with trees and there are many old Dutch
houses. Then they returned very late in the evening to Kuta.
The
second tour to Ubud was a very different tour. It was not to see the scenery but
to see the art and the craft of the island. The first stop was at Batubulan, a
center of stone sculpture. There my friend watched young boys were carving away
at big blocks of stone. The next stop was Celuk, a center for silversmiths and
goldensmiths. After that he stopped a little while for lunch at Sukawati and on
to mass. Mass is a tourist center
My
friend ten-day-stay ended very quickly beside his two tour, all his day was
spent on the beach. He went sailing or surfboarding every day. He was quiet satisfied.
Let
me remind you my experience during an earthquake last week. When the earthquake
happened, I was on my car. I was driving home from my vocation to Bali.
Suddenly
my car lunched to one side, to the left. I thought I got flat tire. I did not
know that it was an earthquake. I knew it was an earthquake when I saw some
telephone and electricity poles falling down to the ground, like matchsticks.
Then
I saw a lot of rocks tumbling across the road. I was trapped by the rock. Even
I could not move my car at all. There were rocks everywhere. There was nothing
I could do but left the car and walked along way to my house, in the town.
When
I reached my town, I was so surprised that there was almost nothing left. The
earthquake made a lot of damage to my town. Although nothing was left, I
thanked God that nobody was seriously injured.
Generic Structure Analysis
Orientation;
introducing the participant, using first person point of view, I was on the car
las week.
Events;
describing a series of event which happened. The car lunched to one side.
Telephone and electricity poles was falling down, etc.
Re-orientation;
stating the writer's personal note. Thanking God because nobody was seriously
injured.
Language Feature Analysis
•
Using personal participant; I
•
Using chronological connectives; then, and,
suddenly
•
Using linking verb; was, were
•
Using action verb; moved, left, walked, made,
etc
•
Using simple past tense pattern; earthquake
happened, I was on the car, my car lunched on one side, etc
Last
month my family and I went to Toraja to attend Grandpa’s funeral. It was my
first time to go to such a ceremony. We gathered there with our kin in the
ceremony.
Overall,
the ceremony was quite elaborate. It took about a week. Several days before the
ceremony was done, grandpa’s body was kept in a series of houses arranged in a circular
row around an open field called tongkonan. His corpse was dressed in a fi ne
wearing.
The
funeral was performed in two phases. First, we slaughtered the pigs and
buffaloes, and then moved the corpse to face north. In this ceremony we wore
black clothes. After that, the corpse was placed in a sandal wood coffin. Then,
it was brought out of the house and placed on an open platform beneath the
granary. Meanwhile, my uncle, my brother, and I prepared the wooden puppet and
a funeral tower called lakian. The next phase of the ceremony was held in this
place. The coffin is borne from the house and placed in the lakian. During the
day, there were also buffalo matches. They were great matches. In the night, we
were feasting, chanting, and dancing.
On
the last day, the grandpa’s coffin were lowered from the funeral tower and
brought up to the mountain side family graveyard. It was followed by great
shouting and excitement from the relatives and the guests. Finally, we
installed the wooden puppet on a high balcony where other puppets representing
the members of a whole family were already there. The funeral ceremonies made
my family and me tired. However, we were grateful because it ran smoothly.
Questions
1. When did the writer attend the funeral?
2. How long did the writer and his family hold the ceremony?
3. What did they do to the corpse before the funeral was
done?
4. What did they do after the corpse was placed in a sandal
wood coffi n?
5. What did they do on the last day of the ceremony?
Notes:
A
recount text is a text that tells you a part of experience. A recount text has
an orientation, a series of events in chronological order, personal remarks on
the events and a reorientation that “rounds off” the sequence of events. In the
text, you find words and phrases used to start, connect a sentence with the
next one, and end your composition. Those words and phrases are:
•
First,
•
Then,
•
After that,
•
Finally,
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