11 Tips for Writing a Personal
Recount/Exposition
1) Follow the instructions.
Pay attention to requirements concerning length, as well. Your teacher
may tell you how many words, pages, or paragraphs your recount needs to be. If
these instructions are not included and you aren't sure about how long the
piece must be, consider asking your teacher directly.
2) Understand the
purpose.
Ask yourself what you hope to achieve by writing
your recount. You need to accurately portray a real event you were personally
involved in.
·
Most recounts are meant to inform, entertain, or do some combination of
the two. Personal recounts are generally written for entertainment, but if your
teacher asks you to describe an event he or she was not present for—like what
happened during your last sports game or during a time when a substitute
teacher led class—you also need to make sure that you provide plenty of
accurate information about that event.
3) Know your audience.
Think about your audience when writing your recount. Ask yourself what
your audience might hope to gain or see from your writing.
·
For classroom purposes, your recount will usually be written for either
your teacher or your peers. Your teacher will want to see that you followed the
instructions he or she provided. Your classmates will usually want to be
entertained with a story they can enjoy or relate to.
4) Watch the mood.
Consider how your audience might feel after reading your recount. For
instance, some stories might make the reader feel happy while others might make
the reader feel sad. Make sure that the story you tell matches the mood you
hope to put the reader in.
·
For example, if you need or want to write a personal recount about a fun
summer memory, you probably shouldn't write about your best friend moving away.
As a sad memory, describing the loss of your friend won't create the “fun” mood
your recount is supposed to have.
5) Pick an appropriate title.
Most recounts have a title, and that title should summarize the text in
a few words.
·
Choose something simple. For instance, a recount about your favorite pet
might be titled, “My Favorite Pet.”
6) Set the orientation. The
orientation includes all of the background details the reader will need to
understand your story. You could also label the orientation as the
"setting" of your story.
·
Identify the participants. Even though a personal recount must retell a
story from your own life, other people will probably be involved in your story,
too. Mentioning these individuals early on will prevent the reader from being
surprised or confused later.
·
Explain when the activity happened and where it happened, as well. These
details are crucial if you want your readers to understand the events of your
story.
·
For example, if you choose to write about a beach vacation spent with
your family, consider starting with something like, “I spent the first week of
July with my mother, father, sister, Uncle Eric, and Aunt Lydia. We stayed at a
hotel on the beach.”
7) Recall and relay the correct sequence of events.
Your recount should describe one significant incident, but each event or
step that happened during that incident happened in a specific order. Make sure
that you write those events in chronological order (the order they originally
occurred in).
·
For instance, if school was canceled for the day because of a major
blizzard, you should mention the blizzard first, followed by the discovery that
school was canceled. Write about what you did with your day off only after
explaining why you had that day off.
8) Pick out important details.
A lot may have happened during the activity you describe in your
recount, but if you provide too many details, you can overwhelm or bore the
reader. Stick with important details that push the story along instead of
slowing it down.
·
As a general rule, only describe events that the reader would not be
able to predict. When writing a personal recount about your weekend, you could
describe the games you played, the people you met with, and any special treats
you may have enjoyed. You do not need to explain that you went to sleep each
night or ate breakfast each morning, however, since those are things your
teacher expects you to do every weekend.
·
9) Separate major parts into different paragraphs.
Each major event in your recount should have its own paragraph. If you
cram too many details into one paragraph, the story can seem cluttered and
confusing.
·
For personal recounts that cover an extended period of time, each
paragraph might describe one easily separated portion of that time. A recount
about your weekend might include one paragraph for Friday evening, one
paragraph for Saturday, and one paragraph for Sunday. A recount about your
summer might include one paragraph for May, one paragraph for June, one
paragraph for July, and one paragraph for August.
10) Include descriptive details as needed.
Descriptive details may not seem necessary at first, but they can help
strengthen the image you're describing in the mind of your readers.
·
This is especially important when you are writing a personal recount
about someone or something important. Personal recounts about your favorite pet
should include a description of how your pet looks. Personal recounts about
your grandparents should include descriptions of how your grandparents look and
sound.
11) Re-orient the reader.
Near the end of the recount, you should note the setting again to tie
things up and remind the reader of what you were describing.
·
Consider including a personal opinion about what happened. For instance,
you might say conclude a personal recount about your Christmas with a statement
like, “This past Christmas was very fun.”
·
You may also need to conclude by describing the outcome of the activity.
If you are telling a recount about your visit to the doctor, end with an
explanation of what your doctor told you or what medicine he or she gave you.
