what is this?

Recount is very similar to narrative. Recount explores the series of events which happened to participant/s. These events are the main element in composing recount text. However it just focuses on the events themselves. It does not include the conflict inside.

The events will be told in chronological order based on time and place. If we get recount text with complete generic structure, it will be constructed by structuring orientation, events and re-orientation. The absence of complication/problem/conflict in the generic structure is actually differentiating from narrative. Arranging these series of event in beautiful and attractive way is the power of writer in composing recount text. Below is piece of passage which can be read as recount text.


My Rush Time as a Journalist

I usually woke up at eight o'clock a.m. and went to the Press Center to check the daily schedule of briefings and press conferences. It was usually held by the United Nation officials or disaster mitigation team.

It was challenging to visit different refugee camps to find soft stories, human interest stories. After that I went back to the Press Center to cover the press conferences of the day.

It was heart breaking when I saw these survivors fight for food and secondhand clothing. Unfortunately as they said, the food and clothing were limited and inadequate. Emerging to glaring, fool noon, it was time to go back to Press Center to write stories and race against time. I was always fearing that the internet would come crushing down.

After everything was done, only then I remembered to eat. Most times, I only ate once a day because I always had to rush and again it was difficult to find food. I had to travel quite far. I needed to spend a 30 to 45 minutes by car just to find fresh food.

Narrative is the most famous type of any text. Various purposes are communicated in a narrative type. However the way it is constructed is describing certain event, character or phenomenon in detail. Narrative prefer showing to telling and that the power of narrative. Reader will feel as he show by him self what happen in the text. Actually narrative can be fiction such as short story or novel and non-fiction like memoirs.

According to Madison smart Bell, the narrative design, or what we call form or structure, is of first and final importance to any work of fiction. In that structure, we will find elements of story; characterization, point of view, theme and plot. Plot is the way of the story constructed.

When we read a text, we can call it narrative as we see the following generic structure inside the text:

Orientation; the introduction of what is inside the text. What text is talk in general. Who involves in the text. When and where it happen.

Complication; what happens with the participants. It explores the conflict among the participants. Complication is the main element of narrative. Without complication, the text is not narrative. The conflict can be shown as natural, social or psychological conflict.

Resolution; this is the phase where the participants solve the problem aroused by the conflict. It is not matter whether the participants succeed or fail. The point is the conflict becomes ended.

Now let's read the following example of narrative text !


Story of Rabbit and Bear

Once upon a time, there lived as neighbours, a bear and a rabbit. The rabbit is a good shot. In contrary, the bear is always clumsy ad could not use the arrow to good advantage.

One day, the bear called over the rabbit and asked the rabbit to take his bow and arrows and came with bear to the other side of the hill. The rabbit was fearing to arouse the bear's anger so he could not refuse it. He consented and went with the bear and shot enough buffalo to satisfy the hungry family. Indeed he shot and killed so many that there was lots of meat left after the bear and his family had loaded themselves and packed all they could carry home.

The bear was very gluttonous and did not want the rabbit to get any of the meat. Th e rabbit could not even taste the blood from the butchering as the bear would throw earth on the blood and dry it up. The poor rabbit would have to go home hungry after his hard day's work.

The bear was the father of five children. The youngest child was very kind to the rabbit. He was very hearty eater. The mother bear always gave him an extra large piece of meat but the youngest child did not eat it. He would take it outside with him and pretended to play ball with the meat. He kicked toward the rabbit's house and when he got close to the door he would give the meat with such a great kick. The meat would fly into the rabbit's house. In this way, the poor rabbit would get his meal unknown to the papa bear.

When we recognize three levels in essay writing intense; descriptive, argumentative and persuasive, then we have to include the hortatory in the persuasive essay. Its purpose is to persuade the reader to follow the writer's act and opinion, point forward that certain thing should or should not be done.

Hortatory is similar to analytical exposition but if we have to differentiate both from one to each other, we have one useful tool by making analysis on the generic structure. What makes hortatory different from analytical exposition is the last finalizing step which analytical exposition is ended by a reiteration while hortatory is finalized by certain a recommendation. The generic structure is as follow:

Thesis; thesis is similar to tentative conclusion which needs to be proven by certain fact and argument. In the end, it can be true or false

Arguments; this is the phase which try to examine and support that the thesis stated above is true.

Recommendation; this is what should or should not be done in the hortatory text. This recommendation is differentiating from analytical exposition.

Now we will see the following example of hortatory text


Higher Education for Woman

In this modern era, there are still some parents who are reluctant about sending their daughter to college. Such narrow attitude shown to woman higher education is largely due to the traditional role of woman in society. A woman is expected just to be a wife and a mother most parents believe that if their daughter gets married and chooses to be a housewife, then the higher education will be a waste. However an educated woman does not only make a better wife abut also contributer better thing to the large society.

Nowadays more women are successfully combining their career and marriage. Educated women are richer both emotionally and financially. They are able to find an outlet for monotonous drudgery of their housekeeping. They bring more satisfaction and contentment to their lives.

Depriving girl of higher education is crash discrimination. Time has changed. Modern society need the talents of its people regardless of gender. Today women work alongside men. In fact, in the last few decades women have made outstanding contributions to society.

Woman should be given the freedom to be educated whether they get married or go to work after finishing their education because it is only through education that a woman will find herself useful and discover what she wants in life. A woman who work is not an insult to her husband. Conversely, her husband should feel proud of her achievement since marriage is actually an equal partnership. Therefore, parents should not think that girls should receive less education just because they will get marriage one day.

A problematic discourse is the simple key to see whether the text is an example of discussion or the other genres. Discussion text will see and elaborate the issue from the different point of view. It presents pro and contra opinion on certain issue. One side is agreeing the issue, the other is disagreeing that issue. The different point of views, according to the generic structure, is the heart of the discussion text. That will differentiate from the other text types.

When we read an example of discussion text, we will see the structure as follow;

Stated issue; what issue is going to be discussed. This must drive problematic discussion from different points of view.

Supporting arguments: after stating the issue, it is necessary to present the argument to support that one point is agreeing.

Against arguments: beside the supporting argument, discussion text need the arguments which disagree to the stated issue.

Recommendation; finally in the end of the discussion, it is important to re-think to formulate certain recommendation for the discussed issue.

Now we will see the following example of discussion text


Giving Children Homework; Pro and Con

There are a lot of discussion as to whether children should be given homework or not. Is it enough for children having time to study at school or needing additional time in home for study after school time?

Some people claim that children do enough work in school already. They also argue that children have their hobbies which they want to do after school, such as sport or music. A further point they make is that a lot of homeworks are pointless and does not help the children learn at all.

However, there are also strong arguments against this point of view. Parents and teachers argue that it is important to find out whether children can work on their own without the support from the teacher. They say that the evening is a good time for children to sit down and think about what they have learned in school.

Furthermore they claim that the school day is too short to get anything done. It makes sense to send home tasks like independent reading or further writing task which do not need the teacher support.

I think, on balance, that some homework is good idea but that should only given at the weekend when children have more time.

Justify FullLet’s Make City Clean and Fresh
A clean and fresh city will surely make the inhabitants healthy. Every morning especially in dry season, all roads must be watered with clean water and swept by the workers of the regional government under the Major’s instruction.
To keep the people from heavy pollution caused by cars, trucks and motorcycles, enough trees must be planted along all roads. Every building or house in the city must be surrounded short and small trees which bear colorful flower.
Bad and improper habits which cause disadvantages, bad smell and dangerous diseases to people such as smoking and throwing rubbish anywhere should be stopped at once.
The major of each city will have to think over the way how to educate people, so that they realize on how important cleanliness and health are for their own sake. Building more public lavatories at every busy place is very badly needed.
It will be wise if the Major decides a certain amount of fine to be paid by those who disobey the government regulation on cleanliness matter. A man who urinate not at lavatory, smoke not at smoking room or throw rubbish at the roads should be fined for instance. Besides dirtying the environment with cigarettes’ butts, smoking will also cause pollution and lungs disease to other people.
So bad habits and impolite attitude should be immediately stopped, otherwise the city will be dirty, unhealthy badly polluted and will never attract foreign or domestic tourist

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