Recount Text

What is a Recount?

A recount retells an experience or an event that happened in the past. There are some types of recount. Some of them are personal recount and factual recount.

Personal Recount

It tells an activity that the writer has personally involved in, for example diary journal and personal letter.

Factual Recount

It reports the particular of an event by reconstructing facts, for example historical recount, biography, and autobiography.

This article will focus on the personal recount writing. Factual recount will be discussed in the next post.

Text Structure

Personal recount is divided into 3 parts. They are orientation, sequence of events, and reorientation.

Orientation 

It gives the background information. This paragraph introduce What the event was, where it  happened, when it happened, who involved. Sometimes, you can include why it happened.

Sequence of events

Events are identified and are told in chronological order.

Reorientation

In this paragraph, the writer expresses personal opinion regarding the event. Besides, the writer can recommend others, or tell what he or she learnt from that events.

Personal recount is mostly written in the first person "I". Although, it can be sometimes written in the third person, "he, she, they".

We use past tense to write a personal recount because it has already happened. 

Personal recount is written in chronological order, in order in which they happened. Use time connectives such as first, next, then, eventually, and so on. 

Below are the example of personal recount. Click on the title below to read them.

Camping 
A Cold Crisp Day 
Diving in Bunaken Island

Kangaroo

Descriptive Text

A kangaroo is an animal lives in Eastern Australia. It has a smaller relative called a wallaby which lives on the Australian island of Tasmanian and also in New Guinea. 

Kangaroos eat grass and plants. They have short front leg, but they have very long and very strong hind legs and a tail. These they use for sitting up on and for jumping. Kangaroos have been known to make forward jumps of over 8 meters and leap across fences more than 3 meters high. They can also run at speed of over 45 kilometers per hour.

News.com.au

The largest kangaroos are the great Grey Kangaroo and the Red Kangaroo. Adult kangaroo grows to a length of 160 meters and weighs over 90 kilograms.

Kangaroos are marsupials. This means that the female kangaroo has external pouch on the front of her body. A baby kangaroo is very tiny when it is born. It crawls at once into this pouch where it spends first five months of life.

Camping

Recount Text

A group of kids went on a camping for their school vacation. They arrived at the camping ground late in the afternoon. First, they put up their tent in the middle of a field. When they finished, they cooked a meal over an open fire. They were all hungry, and the food smelt good. After a wonderful meal, they told stories and sang songs by the campfire. But, sometime later, it began to rain. The kids felt tired, so they put out the fire and crept into their tent. Their sleeping bags were warm and comfortable, so they all slept soundly.

The next morning, the kids packed their things and went home happily. 

The Ants and the Grasshopper

Narrative Text

One summer day, a grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing. a group of ants passed by. They are struggling to carry kernels of corn. 

"Where are you going with those kernels? asked the grasshopper.

"We're delivering them to our ants hill, of course," replied an ant.

"Let's sing with me, instead of working hard. winter is far away," teased the grasshopper.

The ants didn't even stop. They went on working, storing food for winter.  

One bright day in late autumn, a family of ants was busy under the warm sunshine. They were drying out the grain that they had stored during summer. The grasshopper, who was starving, came up and begged the ants for something to eat.

"What!" cried the ants in surprise, "Haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What were you doing all last summer?"

"I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the grasshopper. "I was so busy playing music. Before I knew it, the summer was gone."

The ants shrugged their shoulder in disgust. "Playing music were you?" they cried. "Very well, now dance!"

And the ants turn their back on the grasshopper and went on with their work.

Moral value:

There's a time for work and a time for play.

Simple Present Tense

It rains a lot in Indonesia on December.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Koalas feed on eucalyptus leaves.
Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen.

Simple present is used to express general statement of fact and timeless truth. Something was true in the past, is true in the present, and will be true in the future.

I usually go swimming at the weekend.
The cafe opens at 7.30 in the morning.
He is a driver. He drives bus in the city.

Simple present is used to talk about things in general. Something happens all the time or repeatedly. Something is true in general.

I study for 2 hours every night.
She gets up at 5 every morning.
He always eats sandwich for lunch. 
Julie doesn't drink soda very often.

Simple present is used to express habitual or everyday activities.

His parents live in London.
John isn't lazy. He works hard most of the time.
He is an architect.
I have four brothers.

Simple present is used to tell permanent situations. 

How to construct a sentence in simple present? click here. 

To practice to make simple present sentences, click the links below.
Simple present - Practice 01
Simple present - Practice 02
Simple present - Practice 03
Simple present - Practice 04
Simple present exercise - Auxiliary 

Simple Present Structure

Positive sentence

I	go	swimming at weekend.
You	walk	to school everyday.
They	eat	lunch at the canteen.
We	live	in the same neighborhood.

Use simple form of verbs for I, You, They, and We: go, walk, eat, live, etc.

He	goes	swimming every Friday.
She	walks	to school sometimes.
It	rains	a lot in December.

Add –s/ -es at the end of verbs for He, She, and It: goes, walks, rains, etc. This happens only in the positive sentence.

Negative sentence

I	don’t	drink	coffee for breakfast.
You		have	any sisters.
They		play	football for the school team.
We		like	onions.

Use “don’t” or “do not” before the verb for I, You, They, and We.

He	doesn’t	drinks	coffee very often.
She		have	any brothers.
It		like	raw fish.

Use “doesn’t” or “does not” before the verb for He, She, and It. You DON’T NEED to add –s/-es before the verb in a negative sentence.

Questions

Do	I	know	you?
	you	live	down town?
	they	play	for the school football team?
	we	clean	our own room everyday?

Use “Do” at the beginning of the question for I, You, They and We.

Does	he	live	down town?
	she	have	a sister?
	it	like	fish?

Use “Does” at the beginning of the question for He, She, and It. You DON’T NEED to add –s/-es before the verbs in a question.

Simple Present-Practice 04

Simple Present-Practice 04

Complete the sentences with correct form of verbs from the braacket.

1. The sun (rise) in the east.
2. The moon (light) up the sky at night.
3. Plants (not grow) without waater.
4. The children (play) in this park every afternoon.
5. Hurricane wind (blow) from 90 to 150 miles per hour.
6. Foxes (eat) chicken.
7. Polar ice (melt) each summer.
8. The weather (become) warm in the summer.
9. The water on the surface of the ocean (be) warmer than at the bottom.
10. Most people (think) that tornado and twister are the same.
11. Bats (not be) birds. They are (be) mammals.
12. Most bats (consume) insects.
13. A bat also (eat) fruits.
14. Bats (live) almost anywhere in the world, but they (not live) in the polar region.
15. A penguin (not live) in the warm area.