Recount Text
The social function of Recount text is to retell past event or something which happened in the past. The purpose of this text can be only to inform or even just to entertain. Derewianka (1990) identified three types of Recount text, namely Personal Recount, Factual Recount, and Imaginative Recount. Personal Recount exposes an event in which the writer or the author got involved or acted in the event himself. Belong to this type among others are daily funny incidents, entries of a diary, etc. Factual Recount is a note of an event, such as scientific experiment report, police report, newspaper report, history explanation, etc. Imaginative Recount is an unreal event or story, like reading texts for language lesson, a story about a life of a slave, etc. Hardy and Kalrwein (1990) divided two kinds of Recount, namely Personal Recount and Historical Recount.
GENERIC (SCHEMATIC) STRUCTURE
Recount text usually has three main parts, they are :
| 1 | Orientation | : | identify a person or thing acted or got involved in the event, including the time, a certain place, the situation, etc. |
| 2 | Series of Events | : | ordered in a chronological sequence. |
| 3 | Re-orientation | : | not always (optional), it contains personal comments |
Pay close attention to Derewianka Explanation below :
The focus is on a sequence of events, all of which relate to a particular occasion. The Recount generally begins with an Orientation Giving the reader/listener the background information needeed to understand the text. (i.e., who was involved, where it happened, when it happened). Then, the Recount unfolds with a Series of events ordered in a chronological sequence. At various stages there may be some personal comment on the incident (e.g., We had a wonderful time). |
