What is Recount?

A. 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
B. 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
C. 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
D. 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

Dellas house. It has a big garden with lots of colorful flowers and a

Events

tennis court.
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.

Example of Recount text

1. Vacation to London
Mr. Richards 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 newspaper 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 writers 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, then 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 participants past experience. It reveals the conflict among the participants.
Cinderellas conflicts with her step mother and sister are the example. The conflict is the most
important element in a narrative text. Narrative without conflicts is not narrative any more.
C. Visiting Bali
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.

D. My Horrible Experience
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 vacation 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 writers 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

E.

My Grandpas Funeral in Toraja

Last month my family and I went to Toraja to attend Grandpas 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, grandpas 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 fine 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 grandpas 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,