Recount Writing
WHAT IS A RECOUNT?
A recount retells an experience or an event that happened in the past. The purpose of a
recount can be to inform, entertain or to reflect and evaluate.
A recount can focus on a specific section of an event or retell the entire story. A recount
should always be told in the order that things happened.
There are five types of recount to consider.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Personal Recount
Factual/Newspaper Recount
Imaginative Recount
Procedural Recount
Literary Recount
ELEMENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE RECOUNT
Structure:
ORIENTATION
Explain the who, what, when, where of the experience in your introduction.
FOCUS
Only significant events are included.
CHRONOLOGY
Events are described in the sequence in which they occurred.
ORGANIZATION
Relevant information is grouped in paragraphs.
INSIGHT
Include personal comments, opinions or interpretations of the recounted experience or
event
Features:
TENSE
First and third person are used most frequently, and recall is always written in past tense.
Present tense can be used for analysis and opinion.
NOUNS
Use proper nouns to refer to specific people, places times and events.
VOICE
Both active and passive voice are used in recounts.
CONNECTIVES
Use conjunctions and connectives to link events and indicate time sequence.
POINTS TO CONSIDER BEFORE WRITING:

What are you going to tell your audience? What are you recounting?

What information will the audience need early in the text?

What are the important events or parts of the recount you want to describe? And what
order will they occur in?

How will you let your readers know the order of events? And what language will we use
to link them?

What other information may be useful to include?

How will you conclude your recount?
Sample Recount: The diary of a young girl
I woke up at six o’clock and no wonder, it was my birthday. But of course, I was not allowed
to get up at that hour, so I had to control my curiosity until a quarter to seven. Then I could
bear it no longer, and went to the dining room, where I received a warm welcome from
Moortje (the cat).
Soon after seven I went to Mummy and Daddy and then to the sitting room to undo my
presents. The first to greet me was you, possibly the nicest of all. Then on the table there
were a bunch of roses, a plant, and some peonies, and more arrived during the day.
I got masses of things from Mummy and Daddy, and was thoroughly spoiled by various
friends. Among other things I was given Camera Obscura, a party game, lots of sweets,
chocolates, a puzzle, a brooch, Tales and Legends of the Netherlands by Joseph
Cohen, Daisy’s Mountain Holiday (a terrific book) and some money. Now I can by The Myths
of Greece and Rome – grand!
Then Lies called for me and we went to school. During recess I treated everyone to sweet
biscuits, and then we had to go back to our lessons.
Now I must stop. Bye-bye, we’re going to be great pals!
Criteria for recount writing
Answering WHs in orientation
Use of appropriate connectives in the
recount
Use of chronology
Paragraphing
Sentence structure (grammatically sound
and meaningful sentences)
Effective use of punctuation
Total
Marks
Allocated
2
2
2
1
2
1
10
Few useful links that would clear the idea of Recount further:
Personal Recount Text, “At the Beach”: https://youtu.be/R6Huzru3qz0
Recounts Steps: https://youtu.be/dFOdkgXJGsc
References:
https://www.literacyideas.com/recounts
https://pdst.ie/recountwriting