Text types: Recounts

Overview

What are recounts?

Recounts are a type of story. They tell what happened in the past by recounting a series of events one after the other in the order in which they occurred. Usually they are about everyday, familiar events. When we tell a recount, we reveal the significance of the people and events by sharing our personal feelings about them. 

	Recounts can be spoken, eg when we tell a friend what happened yesterday. They can also be written, eg when we write a diary.
	Sometimes a recount is a whole text in itself, eg a child telling family members what happened at school that day. At other times it is part of another text, eg part of a news story.

Why do we use recounts?

Sometimes we tell recounts to share with family and friends what has happened to us and to share our personal feelings about what happened. At other times we use recounts to record or document very accurately what happened in the past.

We usually tell recounts in a creative and entertaining way. We do this by:

	choosing the most interesting events from all the events that happened
	'painting a picture' of the people and things taking part in the events
	telling our audience what we think and feel about the events

When students tell or write recounts, they do the following things with language:

	talk about past events
	put people and things into past events
	locate past events in time and place
	sequence events
	express feelings and opinions

Where can I find recounts?

The recount is the most common story pattern and is used in everyday talk with family and friends and in storybooks. At school we find recounts in all kinds of spoken and written texts, eg storybooks, poems and history textbooks. Students use recounts when they write journals, or to record what happened in science experiments. 

Recounts are found in the following texts:

	Conversations when a speaker recounts a sequence of events and shares personal feelings about the events.
	Biographies, which recount the significant events in a person's life.
	News stories in the segments which tell in chronological sequence what happened.
	Personal letters and postcards which recount what happened.
	Poems and stories which recount a sequence of events in order to entertain.

How can these pages help me?

In these pages you will find answers to the following questions:

	How are recounts structured?
	What are the typical grammatical features of recounts?
	How can I use recounts in the classroom?

Sample text

In the pages in this set the sample recount My day out at Ocean Park has been analysed to show the typical structure and grammatical features of recounts.