The Literature of Recount Text

In Indonesia, recount texts are included in the 2013 Curriculum. Students should be able to comprehend the recount texts and to write one. According to Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (2013: 88-89), students should understand the purpose, the structure of the texts, and linguistic elements of recount texts. Students are also required to compose oral and written recount texts about their experiences, activities, events, or phenomena around them and to understand the meanings provided in recount texts.

A recount text is a text which tells the readers what happened. Derewianka (1990: 15), who is supported by Knapp and Watkins (2005: 234), provides the structural features of recount texts. In the usual way, recount texts have orientation which is followed by series of events. Derewianka states that orientation gives readers or listeners the background information needed to understand the text, such as who was involved, where it happened, and when it happened (Derewianka, 1990: 15). In series of events, it normally sets up a sequence of events in time and circumstance (Knapp and Watkins, 2005: 234). Other than orientation and series of events, there might be some personal comments or evaluation (re-orientation). This last stage is optional, but it normally provides some interpretation by the writer of what has happened (Knapp and Watkins, 2005: 234). From the explanation above, it could be concluded that recount texts have structural features to tell what happened: orientation, series of events, and re-orientation (optional).

From the explanation, it indicates that each text is built in sequential stages. As the other texts, recount texts also have schematic stages to build a unity in paragraphs. Each part has the information which support one another. A good text should have coherence and cohesion so that the meaning will be delivered clearly to avoid the misinterpretation. Formally, recount texts are sequential texts that do little more than sequence a series of events (Knapp and Watkins, 2005: 223). This statement supports Derewianka (1990: 14) who states that recount texts are the unfolding of a sequence of events over time and reconstruct past experiences. With recount texts, students could keep the past to interpret the experiences they had. In other words, the purpose of recount texts is to tell past events of what have been happened.

There are types in recount texts according to Derewianka: personal recount, factual recount, and imaginative recount (Derewianka, 1990: 15). For more information about each kind of recount texts, the texts would be explained below.

First, personal recount texts usually tell about what writers or speakers have experienced before. Because it can be in the form of diary entry or oral anecdote, personal recount normally uses the first person pronouns such as I and we. The writers or speakers might add personal responses, particularly at the end of the texts. Sometimes, personal recount contains interest or humor as the additional details.

Second, factual recount texts are usually in the form of recordings of the particular incidents such as the report of news, biography, and science experiment, so that it uses the third person pronouns such as he, she, it, and they. Sometimes, the ending describes the outcome of the activity (Derewianka, 1990: 17). Mentioning the personal feelings could be considered as an inappropriate attitude. Since factual recount deals with fact, it needs details of time, place, manner, and description of people or situation to help the readers or listeners reconstruct the incident accurately.

Third, imaginative recount texts are almost the same with personal recount which is usually written in the first person pronouns. However, imaginative recount is consisted of unreal events, for examples, the writers’ or speakers’ experiences in inventing time machine or the experiences of escaping colonialism. It has expression from the writers or speakers who take on an imaginary role and giving details of the events.

Although these three kinds of recount texts have different functions, generally, all recount texts have similarities in language features according to Derewianka (1990: 15). First, recount texts use past tenses such as he cried, she smiled, they came, and so on. Second, actions verbs almost dominate the texts such as went, danced, walked, threw, and so on. Third, there is participation of linking items to do with time such as then, Friday, before, after, last week, next, later, and so on. In other words, although each kind of recount text has different functions, the general characteristics remain the same.