The purpose of a recount text is to give the audience a description of what occurred and when it occurred.
20
It gives us the information about the text which is needed in a recount text.
The strategy to read recount text is: Bacalah judul dan paragraf pertama untuk mendapatkan orientasi umum
tentang peristiwa. Tetapkan tujuan membaca berikutnya: menelaah keseluruhan peristiwa secara lebih detail, atau mencari informasi tertentu. Bacalah
kelanjutan teks itu dengan lebih cermat untuk tujuan pertama, atau lakukan scanning untuk mencapai tujuan kedua.
21
Djiwandono, explained that “The strategy to read recount text is first read the title and first paragraph to get the general orientation about the situation.
Establish the purpose of reading whether to get the whole incident more detail or to get the certain information. Then read the text more detailed for the first
purpose or do the scanning technique to get the second purpose ”.
22
Based on those descriptions about recount text, it can be concluded that recount text is a text which tells a sequence of events which happened in the past
time. It serves the reader about what occurred and when it occurred.
2. Kinds of Recount Text
Mukarto et. al., stated that there are three kinds of recount text, those are: a.
Personal Recount A personal recount text usually retells an experience in which the
writer was personally involved. It lists and describes past event experiences by retelling events. It presents the events chronologically in
order in which they happened. The purpose of personal recount text is to inform or to entertain the reader.
b.
Procedural Recount A procedural recount records events such as a science experiment or a
cooking experience. The purpose of procedural recount texts is to inform listeners or readers.
c. Biographical Recount
20
Emi Emilia, Teaching Writing: Developing Critical Learners, Bandung: Rizqi, 2010, p. 106.
21
P. Istiarto Djiwandono, Strategi Membaca Bahasa Inggris, Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2000, p. 70.
22
Ibid.
The purpose of biographical recount is to inform the reader by retelling past events and achievements in a person‟s life. A biographical
recount uses specific names of the people involved in the biography.
23
In addition, based on Anderson and A nderson, “A procedural recount
details, in sequential order, the steps that have been taken to achieve a goal. It is written after the procedure has been completed.
” Example of procedural recount text include, writing up a science experiment, show something was made, show
something was fixed, show how one moved from A to B.
24
Examples of recount texts also includes eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, letters, conversations, television interviews, speeches.
25
In conclusion, there are several kinds of recount text. Recount text not only tells about someone past experinces, but also it could be about someone‟s
biography, or procedure to make something. Those kinds of text also influence the function of the text.
3. Linguistic Features of Recount Text
Anderson and Anderson mention, “The language features found in a
recount text are: a.
Proper nouns to identify those involved in the text b.
Descriptive words to give details about who, what, when, where and how. c.
The use of past tense to retell the events d.
Words that show the order of events for example, first, second, next, then, finally, et cetera.
” 26
Moreover Emi Emilia stated that, A recount also has several linguistic features, among others:
a. Use specific participants: a younger brother, sister, mother,
father, or the writer himherself: I, my brother, my mother I have an older sister. Her name
is Ani…;
23
Mukarto, et.al, English on Sky 2, Jakarta: Erlangga, 2007, p. 62-175.
24
Anderson and Anderson , Text Types in English 3, op. cit., p. 30-31
25
Anderson and Anderson. loc. cit.
26
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 1, South Yarra: MacMillan Education, 1998, p. 50.
b. Use of the past tense: Last holiday I decided to spend my
vacation c.
Use of temporal and additive conjunction: to connect the messages of clauses Martin, 2009: 156 and help make the text
cohesive: After, when, then, before, during, or conjunctions such as “first, next, then”;
d. Personal comments except for factual Recount The holiday
was cool…: I was happy because I had a great vacation in Italy.
27
In conclusion, in recount text there must be some linguistic features to support the content of the text. As on the other kinds of text, there are similarities
each other. They are using participants, using past tense as time signals, using conjunction and showing the details to support the content of the story.
4. Schematic Structures of Recount Text
