telephones directories, ballot papers, computer manuals, information for example, news and current affairs magazines, hobby magazines, nonfiction books,
public notices, advertisement, political pamphlets, reports, entertainment for example comic strips, fiction books, poetry and drama, newspaper features, film
subtitles, games. The third, Raimes mentioned the purpose of writing as belows: ―Writing helps our students to learn. How? First, writing reinforces the
grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that we have been teaching our students. Second, when our students write, they also have a chance to be the
adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks. Third, when write they necessarily become very involved with the new
language.‖
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In conclusion, the purposes of writing are to give a message, to express ideas, to get things done, to provide information and entertainment, and to give a
chance to our students for applying the language in written form.
B. Recount Text
1. The Definition of Recount Text
Recount text is one of common text types that used in writing. It is the unfolding of a sequence of events over time and reconstruct past experience.
Many experts propose the definition of recount text but their words lead to the same meaning. Anderson defines recount text as a piece of text that retells past
events, usually in the order in which they happened.
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The purpose of recount text is to give the audience a description of what occurred and when it occurred.
Hyland, in other word, said that recount text is a text that reconstructs past experiences by retelling events in original sequence.
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The social function of recount text is to retell events for the aims of informing or entertaining. Some
7
Ann Raimes, Techniques in Teaching Writing, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 3.
8
Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English, South Yarra: Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd, 2003, p. 48.
9
Ken Hyland, Second Language Writing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 20.
examples of recount text can be found in the types of journal, diary, newspaper, article, historical recount, letter, log, and timeline.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that recount text is a simple text represents the past events that experienced in daily life. Its purpose is
either to inform or to entertain the audience. On the other word, the main purpose of recount writing is as a medium for the writer to share events, activities, and
experiences that occurred in the past related to hisher daily life in written form.
2. The Purposes of Recount Text
According to Hyland, the purpose of recount text is ―To reconstruct past
experiences by retelling events in original sequence‖.
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On the other word, the purpose of recount text is as a medium for the writer to share activities, events,
and experiences that happened in the past related to hisher daily life in written form.
3. The Types of Recount Text
In common there are three types of recount text. The types of recount text according to Anderson are:
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a. Personal recount: Retelling of an activity that the writerspeaker has been
personally involved in e.g., oral anecdote, diary entry. This type is also used in this research.
b. Factual recount: Recording the particulars of an incident e.g., report of a
science experiment, police report, news report, historical account. c.
Imaginative recount: Taking on an imaginary role and giving details of events e.g., A day in the life of a Roman save; how I invented
10
Hyland, op. cit.
11
Anderson. loc. cit.