Text types: Recounts

Linking clauses to create a recount

Vocabulary patterns

A common vocabulary pattern in recounts is repetition, ie when the storyteller repeats words which tell us what the recount is about. The recount My day out at Ocean Park is about a visit by three friends to a theme park. For this reason the names of the storyteller's friends (Lara, Sophia) are repeated through out the recount. When people visit a theme park, they go on rides, so for this reason the word ride (and its plural rides) is repeated throughout the recount. Words which orient the reader to the setting (Ocean Park, entrance) are used in the ORIENTATION stage and are often repeated in the RE-ORIENTATION stage.

Other key words related to Ocean Park are also repeated.

high land
cable car

Words related to particular events are also repeated although not throughout the whole recount, only in the sections which tell about those events:

marine show	pandas	high diving
marine show Ocean Theatre dolphins trainers sea lion	panda pandas	high diving suit water

In recounts there are also clusters, or collocations, of vocabulary which we can predict the storyteller will use to talk about particular events. In the recount My day out at Ocean Park we can predict collocations of vocabulary that the storyteller will use to tell what happened when she and her friends visited different parts of the park

Ocean Park	Ocean Theatre		Dragon
rides entrance tickets	marine show front good view dolphins trainers noses sea lions	drowning rescued clever seals tricks fish	roller coaster screaming wild loops corkscrew fast

Raging River	pandas	high diving
tunnel raced downwards soaked	eating bamboo	platform jumped water acrobatics	diving boards splashed audience divers

The storyteller also uses part-whole vocabulary patterns and 'types of' vocabulary patterns. For example, the recount My day out at Ocean Park is about Ocean Park, a theme park in Hong Kong. The vocabulary in the recount includes the name Ocean Park and the names of different parts of Ocean Park. The parts of Ocean Park include different types of rides.

parts of Ocean Park		types of rides
rides entrance the high land mountain cable car seahorse symbol marine show Ocean Theatre escalator the pandas high diving souvenir shop		Flying Swings Dragon roller coaster swinging pirate ship Crazy Galleon Eagle Raging River Space Wheel Mine Train

Some words are used in more than one vocabulary pattern. When vocabulary patterns overlap in this way, the clauses of the recount are linked together even more effectively.

To see how the vocabulary patterns of 'parts of' and 'types of' are used to link all the clauses of the recount My day out at Ocean Park, click here: