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
