What is RECOUNT ?

Recount Text
By Husnun Na’im

Recount Text

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

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

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
Retelling about one's holiday can be good as an example of recount text. It recounts the events in chronological order. Read the following recount about holiday.

My Holiday was Fantastic (Recount text)

Last summer I got a fantastic holiday. I visited some great places.

I went to an airport and was going to fly to Cleveland. I was spending there two days. I liked to see some Cleveland Cavaliers basketball matches.

Then I went to Hollywood. Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It had become world-famous as the center of the film industry. Four major film companies – Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO and Columbia – had studios in Hollywood. I did not want to leave but I had to.

After that, I went to New York city. I visited the Statue of Liberty. I went from the bottom of Manhattan to the top of the crown. That was very amazing.

VISITING BALI (Recount text)
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.

Recount is very similar to narrative. Recount explores the series of events which happened to participant/s. These events are the main element in composing recount text. However it just focuses on the events themselves. It does not include the conflict inside.
The events will be told in chronological order based on time and place. If we get recount text with complete generic structure, it will be constructed by structuring orientation, events and re-orientation. The absence of complication/problem/conflict in the generic structure is actually differentiating from narrative. Arranging these series of event in beautiful and attractive way is the power of writer in composing recount text. Below is piece of passage which can be read as recount text.

My Rush Time as a Journalist
I usually woke up at eight o'clock a.m. and went to the Press Center to check the daily schedule of briefings and press conferences. It was usually held by the United Nation officials or disaster mitigation team.
It was challenging to visit different refugee camps to find soft stories, human interest stories. After that I went back to the Press Center to cover the press conferences of the day.
It was heart breaking when I saw these survivors fight for food and secondhand clothing. Unfortunately as they said, the food and clothing were limited and inadequate. Emerging to glaring, fool noon, it was time to go back to Press Center to write stories and race against time. I was always fearing that the internet would come crushing down.
After everything was done, only then I remembered to eat. Most times, I only ate once a day because I always had to rush and again it was difficult to find food. I had to travel quite far. I needed to spend a 30 to 45 minutes by car just to find fresh food.

Recount text is included in a group of narration, similar to spoof and narrative. Recount text focuses on the series of event, one event followed by the others. Commonly recount text is arranged in chronological order; whether by time or by the essence of the event itself. Read the following example of recount text which narrates a survival experience from a horror situation.

Bus was Flowing Right Behind Me

I stayed a night at Sakhuwa of Gati VDC because a landslide near Baseri had blocked the road, The next morning, I hopped onto the bus with registration number Ba 2 Kha 4013 that was on the way to Barhabise from Tatopani.
I took a seat by the doorside and remember that there were around 35 passengers, including me. The driver started the bus. A kilometer into the journey, I noticed a ditch on the road.
The driver tried to avert the ditch. Before I could know what was going on, the bus started hurtling towards the Bhotekoshi.
I had given up hope of surviving, but found a ventilator glass broken. I came out of the shattered glass and plunged into the Bhotekoshi.
The river carried me for about 35 kilometers and left me on the shallow surface. I passed out after that. The rescuers took me to a hospital when I regained consciousness.
I heard later that all except four passengers had survived. I have sustained injuries on the face, hands and other body parts. Nonetheless, I feel that surviving was my destiny.
This example of recount text is taken from Himalayan Time

Vacation to LONDON; The clear examples of Recount text
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.

Reading spoof and recount text will arouse the convenience. Both spoof and recount genre explore the informative fact for the past experience. In literary term, experience can be factual or imaginative, objective or subjective. Both spoof and recount focus on series of event which happened.
However for functional view, recount text emphasizes in detailed information of the events. It reveals the series of events in chronological order based on time or place. In the other hand, spoof text tends to project the amusement of reading. Spoof text uses tricky plot to drive readers to certain view and sooner brings the reader to the opposite point. This trick will result amusement of reading.
Clearly the different flow plots used by spoof and recount are seen at the applied generic structure. For the first stages, both spoof and recount have similarity. Both introduce the participants of the story and, orientate the main event and set the time and place. After that both spoof and recount text expose the following events in detail. The last phase is what makes them different. Recount text will summarize the introduction and closed with the writer's subjective feeling concerning the events. Meanwhile spoof text will end the story with what we call TWIST. It is the unpredictable thing. Reader has expected certain point in the ending on the contrary hand the story itself moves to another unexpected ending.
Read the other examples:
Recount
• Example of Recount "My Fantastic Holiday"
• Contoh Recount text " Short Biography of Kurt Cobain"
• Example of Recount Text "Biography of Marion Barber"
• Recount Text "Biography of Albert Einstein"
• Contoh Recount Text - Recounting Horror Experience
• Text Types in Non-Fiction Writing
• Text Types in Three Main Genres
• Recount Example in Journalist's Diary
• Vacation to London; the clear example of recount text
• Between Recount and Narrative
• Visiting Bali; a recount text
• TEXT TYPES; a complete overview
• My Horrible Experience; a recount text
• What is Recount?
Spoof
• Example of Spoof "What Time is It?"
• Example of Spoof text with Ironic Twist
• "The Perfect Husband" as Example of Spoof Text
• Spoof Example "Honey What is for Supper?"
• Twist in Spoof Text
• Contoh Spoof Text "The Necklace"
• Spoof Text is Different from Anecdote Text
• Goat Jumping into Deep Hole as EXAMPLE OF SPOOF TEXT
• Example of Spoof Text in Story of Spying Parrot
• It’s Time to Go to School! Short Example of Spoof Text
• Loving Money Too Much; Example of Spoof
• Example of Spoof Text in Funny Story
• “That Phone is Off” ; example of spoof
• Saved by Stilts; a spoof text