many distractions which can distract the student while they are making a composition, such as squeaky chairs, talkers, events outside the window. That is
why, teacher should try to build a fun environment to make students feel comfortable while writing.
From the problems of writing which have been shown above, it can be concluded that writing is a difficult skill since it is often found some problems of
it. By knowing the problems of writing, both the teacher and students can be aware of avoiding those problems.
B. Recount Text 1. Definition of Recount Text
A recount is a piece of text that retells past events, usually in the order in which they happened.
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Its purpose is either to inform or to entertain the audience. Recounts are used to reconstruct and describe something that has
already happened. They are used to retell experiences and may include the author’s or other people’s feeling and responses to these experiences. Examples of
recount text can be found n a biography, news item, a journal, or a testimony of a witness of an event or incident.
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2. Kinds of Recount Text
There are three kinds of recount text, those are:
a. Personal Recount
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A personal recount text usually retells an experience in which the writer was personally involved. It lists and describe past event
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Donald Pharr and Santi Buscemi, Writing Today: Contexst and Options for the Real World, Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2005, p.44
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Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English 1, South Yarra: Macmillan, 1997, p.49
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Emi Emilia, Teaching Writing: Developing Critical Learners, Bandung: Rizqi, 2010, p.106
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Mukarto, et.al, English on Sky 2, Jakarta: Erlangga, 2007, p. 62.
experiences by retelling events. It presents the events chronologically in order in which they happened. The purposes of
personal recount text are to inform or to entertain the reader.
b. Procedural Recount
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A procedural recount records events such as a science experiment or a cooking experience. The purpose of procedural recount texts is
to inform the reader about the procedure to do something.
c. Biographical Recount
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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.
Chaisiri in Language Education in Asia, Volume 1, tells that there are other types of recounts, those are personal recount, factual recount and
imaginative recount
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, those will be described as follows:
Personal Recount
It tells the first or third person recount. It means the writer actively involved doing the actions in the story.
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Mukarto, et.al, English on Sky 2, Jakarta: Erlangga, 2007, p.93.
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Mukarto, et.al, English on ……………….., p.174.
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Tawatchai Chaisiri, Implementing a Genre Pedagogy to the Teaching of Writing in a University Context in Thailand, in Language Education in Asia, Vol.1, p.195-196 available at
http:www.camtesol.orgDownloadLEiA_Vol1_2010LEiA_V1_2010_Chaisiri_Implementing_a _Genre_Pedagogy__to_the_Teaching_of_Writing__in_a_University_Context_in_Thailand.pdf ,
downloaded on Saturday, January 22
nd
, 2011
Factual Recount
It tells the historical or biographical recounts including autobiography and memoirs. Different from personal recount; the
purpose of factual recount is to inform the event.
Imaginative Recount
It tells the fantasy or adventure story. It is not always written within the author’s experiences. It is usually made for the purpose of
educating, such as textbooks.
3. Linguistic Features of Recount Text
