There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. 

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There was once on a time a poor man, who could no longer support his only son. Then said the son, “Dear father, things go so badly with us that I am a burden to you. I would rather go away and see how I can earn my bread.” So the father gave him his blessing, and with great sorrow took leave of him. At this time the King of a mighty empire was at war, and the youth took service with him, and with him went out to fight. And when he came before the enemy, there was a battle, and great danger, and it rained shot until his comrades fell on all sides, and when the leader also was killed, those left were about to take flight, but the youth stepped forth, spoke boldly to them, and cried, “We will not let our fatherland be ruined!” Then the others followed him, and he pressed on and conquered the enemy. When the King heard that he owed the victory to him alone, he raised him above all the others, gave him great treasures, and made him the first in the kingdom. 

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Purpose 

The purpose of a recount is to list and describe past experiences by retelling events in the order in which they happened (chronological order). Recounts are written to retell events with the purpose of either informing or entertaining their audience (or both). 

Types of Recount 

· Personal Recount

These usually retell an event that the writer was personally involved in. 

· Factual Recount

Recording an incident, eg. a science experiment, police report. 

· Imaginative Recount

Writing an imaginary role and giving details of events, eg. A day in the life of a pirate; How I invented… 

Features of Recounts 

· focuses on individual participants/events 

Generic Structure 

· the recount has a title, which usually summarises the text 

· specific participants (Mum, the crab) 

· The basic recount consists of three parts: 

1. the setting or orientation - background information answering who? when? where? why? 

2. events are identified and described in chronological order. 

3. concluding comments express a personal opinion regarding the events described 

· details are selected to help the reader reconstruct the activity or incident (Factual Recount) 

· the ending may describe the outcome of the activity, eg. in a science activity (Factual Recount) 

· details of time, place and incident need to be clearly stated, eg. At 11.15 pm, between Reid Rd and Havelock St a man drove at 140 kms toward the shopping centre (Factual Recount) 

· descriptive details may also be required to provide information, eg. He was a skinny boy with a blue shirt, red sneakers and long tied back hair (Factual Recount) 

· includes personal thoughts/reactions (Imaginative Recount) 

Language 

· is written in the past tense (she yelled, it nipped, she walked) 

· frequent use is made of words which link events in time, such as next, later, when, then, after, before, first, at the same time, as soon as she left, late on Friday) 

· recounts describe events, so plenty of use is made of verbs (action words), and of adverbs (which describe or add more detail to verbs) 

· details are often chosen to add interest or humour to the recount. 

· use of personal pronouns (I, we) (Personal Recount) 

· the passive voice may be used, eg. the bottle was filled with ink (Factual Recount)