Narrative vs Recount
An event that may have taken place in the past is the source that is used by a writer to come up with a piece that is either a recount or a narrative. Both describe a past event which is what makes them look similar to a listener or a reader. However, despite similarities, there are many differences between a recount and a narrative that will be highlighted in this article.
Recount
If you attend a party or an event and meet a friend who was not there, you try to recount by telling him everything that happened in the event or party. This is what recount is. You are giving an account of a past event or a party based upon your feelings and experiences. Teachers make use of recount to judge the writing and imaginative abilities of students as they ask them to recount an event they attended in the past. If you have been to a trip, you can be asked to recount the trip in your words. The important thing to remember is that a recount is always written in the past tense. What, who, where, and when are the most important ingredients of a recount and chronological answers to these questions constitute a recount.
A recount can be factual, as when a news reporter recounts the story that he covered or procedural as when a writer letting readers know how to do something or make something. It becomes personal when the writer is recounting a holiday or any other past experience. Biographies and autobiographies are recounts always, and so are the news stories in newspapers and TV news.
Narrative
Narrative is retelling something that took place in the past. If you are telling a story to a small kid, you are making use of narrative as you are telling a fable or a folk tale in your own words. The important thing to remember is that narrative is not the story itself but the act of storytelling. So it can be a written narrative or an oral narrative.
What is the difference between Narrative and Recount?
• Recount is chronological and describes events as they took place in the past
• Narrative is an art of storytelling that can make the story more interesting and exciting than it is.
• Narrative gives an account of crises inside the story and a way to solve them.
• There is a basic difference in the structures of narratives and recounts.