The first thing you need to understand is the writing prompt itself. If your teacher asks you to write about a favorite holiday memory, your recount needs to describe something that happened during a holiday. It should not describe a favorite memory that happened in school, after class on a normal school day, or during a normal weekend. 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.
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. [1] X Research source
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.
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.
Choose something simple. For instance, a recount about your favorite pet might be titled, “My Favorite Pet. ”
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. ”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. [7] X Research source
For a personal recount, you need to describe how you felt and what you did. Doing this will be impossible if you do not tell the story from your perspective.
For example, if you write about the games you played when your cousin visited you, you will need to state everything you did: “I played baseball,” “We raced each other to the park,” “My cousin and I painted pictures. ” The words “played,” “raced,” and “painted” describe the actions you and your cousin performed. It makes more sense to say that you performed these actions than to describe these events without saying anything about doing them. A description of the park you raced to won’t make sense if you don’t first explain that you raced to it.
This means converting all of your verbs to the past tense. Instead of saying that you “enjoy” eating at your favorite restaurant, you will need to write that you “enjoyed” eating at your favorite restaurant. For most verbs, you can change them to the past tense by add “-ed” to the end of the verb. Examples include: enjoyed (enjoy), played (play), visited (visit), walked (walk) For some verbs, several letters within the word will change and no “-ed” is needed. A few common examples include: ran (run), ate (eat), went (go)
Transitions describe the order of events. A few examples include: first, next, later, meanwhile, then, finally Your recount might look something like this: First, I did _________. Next, we went to the ______. Later, I decided to ______. Meanwhile, my parents were ______. Then, all of us ______. Finally, we ended the day by ______.
