RECOUNT TEXT

RECOUNT TEXT

->To tell other people about something that has happened in your life.

->To tell about what you did  at the weekend.

->It might be about exciting things that happened when you were on holidays last year.

->Speaking or writing about past events is called a recount.
-> In short a recount is a piece of text that retells past events past events, usually in the order in which they happened. The purpose of a recount is to give the audience a description of what occurred and when it occurred.
Some examples of recount text types are:
=>Newspaper reports
=>Conversations
=>Speeches
=>Television interviews
=>Eyewitness accounts
=>letters

Construction of Recount
The recount text types retell , past events, usually in the order which they happened. The steps for constructing written recount are:
a. The first paragraph that gives background information about a who, what, where and when ( called an orientation )
b. A  series of paragraphs that retell the events in the order in which they happened.
c. A concluding paragraph ( not always necessary )

Language of Recounts

The language features usually found in a recount are :
a. Proper noun to identify those involved in the text.
b. Descriptive words to give details about who, what, when, where, how.
c. The use of the past tense to re tell the events.
d. Words that show the order of events ( for example , first, next, then )

EXAMPLES:

There are many beautiful plants and flowers in Bobo’s garden and he was very proud of them, and he loves watering them every afternoon.

One day Bobo was watering his plants when suddenly the water from the hose stopped flowing. Bobo was surprised and when he looked around, he saw Giga standing on the hose. Accidentally Giga had stepped on the hose and it broke.

Bobo was upset and Giga felt sorry, then she went to a small pond near the garden, filled her  trunk with water and came back. She sprayed Bobo’s garden with water from her trunk. Bobo was happy and forgave Giga. Giga promised to give Bobo a new watering hose

RECOUNT with PRESENT TENSE

Rachel’s mother, Ruth, has a busy and interesting life. Ruth usually wakes up at 6:30 A.M. then she likes to lie in the bed for awhile and drink coffee. After about half an hour, she likes to get up and go to work on the trees  and flowers around the apartment. At about 8:00 she goes back inside and take a shower. Then she dresses, and she goes to exercise with her friends. When she finishes her exercises, she goes shopping. She comes home at around 10:30, cleans the house and cooks some lunch. From 12:00 to 12:30, she eats lunch with her husband, Shuka. From then until 7:30, she teaches piano, organ, and accordion to her students. When  she finishes, she eats, she eats dinner with her husband. In the evening she likes to play cards or go dance. At about 11:30, she and her husband usually go to sleep.

RECOUNT with FUTURE TENSE

This week I am going to go to New York City. On Saturday morning, I am going to see the statue of Liberty. Next, I am going to to visit the United Nations. I want to talk with one of my friends from Burma, who is in the Burmese delegation. In the afternoon, I am going to shop on fifth Avenue. I will buy some shoes for my father, a bag for my mother and a wallet for my younger brother. In the evening, I really want to go to a baseball game in Yankee Stadium, between the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles. On Sunday, I am going to spend the morning in the Center park, and the afternoon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Before I leave, I will send postcards to all of my friends in Rangoon. At about 5:00 P.M I am going to to return to Hartford.

Eyewitness Accounts

An eyewitness account is to one example of a recount. The eyewitness may be called on to give details about an event such as a car accident, an explosion or a fight. The audience may be a police officers, readers of a newspaper or viewers of a TV news report. The purpose of the account is to provide details about the event in the order in which they occurred.

e.g

I was walking along main street about 10 a.m, when I saw this blue car stop outside the bank. Next thing I saw this man with a mask on. He jumped out of the car and ran into the bank then waked up to the door of the bank and look in. By this time the robber had everyone in the bank lying on the floor. At this point I hurried to the telephone box in the Park road and called the police.

Ladies and gentlement

Thank you for presenting me with the award for best special effect at this year’s golden Awards.

When I began in the movies back in the early 1950s we had none of the technology that you have today. In my first movie, The Lizard That Ate Mexico, I had to wear a black rubber suit to play the lizard. A magnifying glass was  placed in front of the camera to make the lizard look larger. After two hours in the rubber suit, under the studio lights, I was cooked.

My next role was in Killer Cucumber. At this time we were making films in color

r. The director had me wear a green rubber suit. Thankfully, the studio was air conditioned and I could concentrate more on being a killer cucumber rather than on preventing heatstroke.

By 1960 I was given my first speaking role. Before that I only got to crawl around the stage in rubber suits and grunt. I said.’Hey, get off my wave,’ in Teenage Surf Zombies. That Sceene was not filmed on a beach but in a studio that had a picture of a wave in the background and a stagehand who sprayed water in my face to make it look as though I was surfing. Those were the days.

Movie making today can use computer-generated images and all sorts of high-tech effects. Still, I prefer the good old-fashioned way of doing things. I am glad you liked my part as the flying cow in Twister and I thank you for coming to the hospital to give me this award.

Words Showing Order

One of the language features of recounts is the use of words that show the order in which the events in the text happened.

first ( second, third)               next

when                                       now

then                                         soon after

at this point                            lastly

at this time                             before that

after a while                           afterwards

at this moment                       following that

meanwhile