Language Features of Recount

  • Includes specific participants
  • Uses simple past tense
  • Use of action Verbs
  • Time linking words - when, after, before, during
  • Interesting Details
  • Personal responses may be included

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Which ine is a Recount?

Here are three non-fiction texts. Can you tell which of these is a recount?

Text 1.
Making an omelette.
2 eggs
25g of oil
250 milk
Frying pan
Method
Take the pan and put in the oil. Heat the oil until it is hot.
Break the eggs into a bowl and add the milk.
Beat the eggs and milk together and when mixed thoroughly, add to the frying pan.
Fry until the omlette in brown on one side and then turn it over in the pan.
When cooked remove from the pan and serve with a garnish of parsley.


Text 2
In the summer the amount of daylight that we get is more than we get in winter.
This is not because as some people think we are closer to the sun but because of the tilt of the Earth.
The Earth is actually closer to the sun in winter than it is in the summer but you would be forgiven for thinking that this can not be true after looking out of your window on a cold and frosty morning. It seems strange that as the earth gets closer to the Sun during its orbit then in the amount of daylight that we get decreases. But that is the case. It is the tilt of the Earth that determine the amount of daylight that we get and so the length of time that for us the sun is above the horizon.

Text 3
My mother got me ready for school then I had to wait for her to brush my hair and place every strand in just the perfect position. I had to show her my shoes that I had cleaned the night before and my school bag had to be neatly put on my shoulder before I could get near the door. Only after my mother was totally satisfied would I be allowed to rush out of the front door.
I would leave home at 8 am on the dot and make my way down the lane. After a walk of about 700 metres I would be able to see the tall steeple of the school.
The playground would be full in the summer and the noise would make me want to rush into the yard and get into a good game of football before the bell went.


Well, which of those texts do YOU think was a recount?

Introduction to Recounts

Recounts
Purpose: The purpose of a recount is to retell events.
The prefix re means again. So to recount is to state again.

Structure: There is often an opening or setting a of a scene. E.g. I went to the park.
The events in a recount are often in the order that they happen (Chronological order):

I went to the park and I saw a pond. The pond had ducks sitting at the side of it.

A recount will often have a closing statement. E.g. I left the park and went home.

Language features: Recounts are written in the past tense.
They can be written in the first or the third person
1st person It is happening to the person writing the recount i.e. I went to the park.
3rd person. An observer is telling it. Tom went to the park, there he saw a pond.
The connectives in a recount are often: Next, then, after that.
Recounts focus on what an individual or a group of people were doing.
The following are examples of recounts.

Newspaper reports
Diaries.