Recount Text: Pengertian, Struktur, Jenis, dan Contohnya

Sebelum ke pengertian recount text, mari pahami arti "recount" terlebih dahulu. Menurut Cambridge Dictionary, recount berarti "to describe how something happened, or to tell a story". Dalam bahasa Indonesia, artinya adalah "mendeskripsikan bagaimana sesuatu terjadi atau menceritakan sebuah kisah".

Lebih jelasnya, buku Detik-Detik UNBK Bahasa Inggris oleh Bima, Kurniawati, dan Susiningsih (2017) mendefinisikan recount text sebagai jenis teks yang bertujuan menceritakan peristiwa, kejadian, atau kegiatan yang terjadi pada waktu lampau. Seperti yang disinggung di bagian awal, peristiwa di sini bisa berupa pengalaman pribadi atau orang lain, maupun kejadian bersejarah.

Untuk apa tulisan seperti itu dibuat? Pastinya, bukan tanpa sebab karena tujuan recount text adalah untuk menyuguhkan informasi atau sekadar menghibur pembaca tentang kejadian yang diceritakan kembali.

Meskipun sama-sama menceritakan sesuatu, teks recount berbeda dengan narrative text. Kalau dalam teks naratif terdapat konflik, teks recount gak punya. Perbedaan ini bisa dilihat pada struktur teksnya. 

Adapun struktur umum atau generic structure of recount text adalah sebagai berikut:

• Orientation, berisi informasi tentang benda, pelaku, tempat, dan waktu peristiwa.
• Events, menjelaskan rangkaian kejadian dari peristiwa yang dimaksud secara runtut dan kronologis.
• Reorientation, berupa kesimpulan atau pengantar akhir yang merangkum dan memberitahukan akhir cerita dari keseluruhan peristiwa kepada pembaca.

Terdapat penggunaan bahasa tersendiri yang membuat teks recount berbeda dari jenis teks bahasa Inggris yang lain. Dikutip dari buku Detik-Detik UNBK Bahasa Inggris oleh Bima, Kurniawati, dan Susiningsih (2017), berikut adalah kaidah kebahasaan atau language features of recount text:

• Kata kerja dalam bentuk lampau atau past tense (e.g., cooked, wrote, fought).
• Menggunakan action verb atau kata kerja tindakan (e.g., went, made, asked).
• Terdapat penggunaan pronoun atau kata ganti (e.g., it, he, she, they).
• Memakai chronological connector atau kata penunjuk waktu untuk mengurutkan peristiwa (e.g., later, then, when).
• Terdapat adverbial phrase atau frasa keterangan yang berfungsi untuk mengungkapkan tempat, waktu, maupun cara (e.g., last week, the next morning, in my hometown).
• Memakai adjective atau kata sifat untuk menerangkan kata benda (e.g., delicious cake, memorable journey, crucial event).

Selain itu, dalam sebuah teks recount, biasanya juga terdapat

• linking verb atau kata kerja yang menghubungkan subjek dan keterangan, seperti become, seem, appear, grow, be (was dan were);
• conjunction atau kata hubung, contohnya but, and, or, until, although, dan lain-lain;
• adverb atau kata keterangan, seperti carefully, slowly, well, dan sebagainya;
• personal participant, misalnya I, my mother, my family, my car, dan lain-lain.
• specific participant, misalnya Lake Toba, Eiffel Tower, dan lain-lain.

Tahukah kamu kalau terdapat beberapa jenis teks recount? Dilansir laman Literacy Ideas, di bawah ini adalah jenis-jenis recount text:

• Personal recount, menceritakan kembali sebuah kegiatan yang dialami secara pribadi oleh seseorang.
• Factual/Historical recount, merupakan salah satu jenis teks recount tentang peristiwa nyata—tapi bukan pengalaman pribadi—yang ditulis berdasarkan informasi faktual sehingga bersifat objektif.
• Procedural recount, menceritakan kembali tahapan dari sebuah investigasi, eksperimen sains, ataupun kegiatan memasak secara kronologis serta menyuguhkan hasil atau temuan dari kegiatan tersebut di bagian akhir.
• Literary recount, memberitahukan kembali sederet kejadian, bisa fiksi maupun nyata, dengan tujuan menghibur pembaca.
• Imaginative recount, adalah jenis teks recount yang penulisnya menceritakan ulang kisah imajinatif/fiksi yang didapat dari khayalan atau mimpi yang ia alami.

Orientation:
Last month, my family visited my uncle's house in Wonosobo, Central Java for our cousin's wedding party. It was a long semester holiday, so I decided to stay longer there and my parents return home for work. Besides, my cousins from Ambon and Biak were there too.

Events:
The following day after the party, my cousins and I plan to go to Dieng Plateau. We wanted to enjoy the golden sunrise. We went there by car at 3 a.m. It took about an hour to reach the hiking post. My cousin's friend, Sinta, lives near the plateau, so she became our tour guide.

When we arrive there, Sinta welcomed us warmly. Then, she guided us to reach the peak to see the golden sunrise. We walked about an hour in a very cold weather. We arrived at the peak around 4:30 a.m. and waited for the sunrise. A few minutes later, the golden sun rose from the east. It was so beautiful that we took photos. Then, we return to the post and had breakfast.

Reorientation:
It was tiring, but enjoyable.

Dikutip dari buku Detik-Detik UNBK Bahasa Inggris oleh Bima, Kurniawati, dan Susiningsih (2017).

Orientation and Background:
Cats were ones the most effective form of vermin control across European cities. Indeed, in the 13th century, Europe's large cap population had helped slow the spirit of many different diseases.

Unfortunately, however, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church at the time, Pope Gregory IX, did not like cats at all. In fact, on 13th June 1233, he issued a papal bull known as Vox in Rama that declare that cats were actually an incarnation of Satan and ordered their elimination.

Events:
As a result, throughout the next hundred or so years, cats were killed in massive numbers. Annual festivals were even held dedicated to the destruction of their destruction.

Then, in the middle of the 14th century, a deadly plague began to spread from Asia. By the time the Black Plague hit Europe, cat numbers had significantly declined and, due to the increase of rat population, the plague spread quickly.

The plague was highly contagious and was spread in a variety of ways. In its most deadly form, the bubonic plague was transmitted primarily by fleas that lived on rats. The most effective against rat was, of course, cats.

In the short space of just seven years, from 1346 to 1353, the Black Plague killed between 75 and 200 million people as it spread from Asia all the way through to northwestern Europe.

Reorientation/Conclusion:
Some scholars of this period in European history believed that the massive decline in cat numbers due to Pope Gregory IX mandate contributed to be overwhelming devastation caused by spread of the plague.

Further evidence that, in human history, any action can have unpredictable and unwanted consequences.

Dikutip dari laman Literacy Ideas "How to Write a Historical Recount Text".

The following text is for questions 1 and 2.

Last year, earthquake occurred in my town. At that time, my father was on duty in another town and I was at home with my mother.

That morning, I prepared for school. I felt a little bit quake, but I ignore it. Suddenly, the quake increased bigger and bigger. My books on the shelf were thrown on the floor. My mother called me hysterically and asked me to run out. I screamed and ran out of my room. When I passed the living room, a shelf almost hit me. I ran to my mother in the yard. I saw everything quaking. The roof-tiles fell down and I heard the furniture inside my house falling down. We just could pray. Our neighbors also saved themselves by running outside from their houses. Finally, the quake stopped. Several of my neighbors were injured and brought to the hospital.

We did not enter the house because we worried that there would be aftershocks. The wall of my house was also cracked. My family and neighbors decided to stay in a large yard near my house. Then, the rescue team arrived and informed that there was no tsunami. Then, they built tents for us.

In the afternoon, my father arrived. He returned after hearing the news about the earthquake. Moreover, he could not contact us. We left in tents about a week and the rescue team helped us renovate our house. My school also moved to the field because the building was broken. Many people sent aids for us. We really thanked for the aids because it helped us survive.

Dikutip dari buku Detik-Detik UNBK Bahasa Inggris oleh Bima, Kurniawati, dan Susiningsih (2017).

1. What is the purpose of the text?

A. To tell us about the writer's unforgettable experience.

B. To reminisce what the author did during one time in her/his life.

C. To show how helpful the rescue team was during the disaster.

D. To remind the readers about the disaster occurred in the writer's town.

E. To list the detailed events in the town when the disaster occured.

2. How did the writer feel when the disaster occurred?

A. Horrified.

B. Tired.

C. Angry.

D. Jealous.

E. Nervous.

Gimana, sudah paham pengertian recount text , kan? Jadi, kalau ditanya, "what is recount text?", maka jawabannya adalah jenis teks dalam Bahasa Inggris yang menceritakan kembali kejadian di masa lampau, baik berupa pengalaman pribadi ataupun peristiwa sejarah. Semoga bermanfaat!

Penulis: Fria Sumitro