Teenage Romance
What makes it a romance?
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A couple, or sometimes a triangle
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Meet awkward, where the couple runs into each other under uncomfortable circumstances
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Setting usually a high school, summer camp, or after-school activity
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The couple exchanges notes or tokens of affections, usually books or CDs they like.
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Best friends or other confidants.
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Others are judgmental of the couple.
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They take a trip or go to an event like prom
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Someone in the couple is broody or angsty. Sometimes both.
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A conflict threatening to keep the couple apart is authority figures
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Expressions of intimacy, longing glances, hand-holding and kissing. Sometimes but not always sex.
Dawson's Creek
Whether walking the halls of their high school or hanging out in Dawson's bedroom, the tension of this show rests of whom angsty daughter of a convicted felon, Joey Potter, will eventually choose: the best friend she has secretly longed for her whole life or the guy from the complicated family who is actually good for her. #TeamPacey or #TeamDawson.
The Notebook
Noah and Allie’s passion for each other trumps parental interference and nagging fiances. The movie contains the writing of angsty letters, a trip to an abandoned house, and an epic-long kiss in the rain. Young crazy love never freaking dies, not even when you grow old and have a disease which strips you of your memories.
Eleanor and Park
Eleanor and Park meet on the school bus and they do not like the fact that they sit together, but over time and the exchange of comic books and CDs, these two become a strange couple who together challenges her domineering stepfather and helps her escape from an abusive household.
Bingo Love
Hazel and Mari meet at a Bingo game in 1963 and fall head-over-heels in love but cannot tell anyone, even each other, the feelings they have. They share one kiss and the authority figures in their lives split them apart and arrange marriages for them. After 50 years -- now grandmothers-- they run into each other again at Bingo.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo is bummed out with a broken heart and Juliet's mom won't even stand in the same room with her without the nurse as a buffer. Their families hate each other, so naturally, Romeo and Juliet start a secret romance and sneak away to be married. Sword fights, banishment, and suicide: Romeo and Juliet are the epitomal dramatic teen couple.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Lara Jean processes her feelings for boys by writing them long love letters and keeping them in a box in her closet. When these letters end up in the hands of the boys, she is embarrassed and must hatch a scheme with Peter Kavinski to deflect the attention from her and also make his ex-girlfriend jealous. The Authority figures are supportive, but the kids at school are obsessed with this new couple. A senior ski trip offers the change for her and Peter to get closer (kiss, kiss) but also further apart when rumors spread about him and his ex.
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love
Randy is out as a lonely gay teen in a small town. Evie is not. The two start passing notes at school and eventually share a copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Instead of going to prom or on a trip, this couple stays in or finds hidden places to be together. Holding hands leads to more. Evie's eventually comes out to her friends and her mom.
The Fault in Our Stars
Is it possible to not be angsty when you are a teenager seconds away from dying of cancer? Hazel and Gus meet in a cancer support group and they develop a shared love for a novelist whom they eventually, despite the reluctance of their parents, make the journey to meet. Complications with their illnesses only make their love grow deeper. Expect to cry.
A Different World
With the backdrop of Hillman College, Dwayne Wayne is looking for love and eventually finds it with the spoiled but evolving Whitley Gilbert, whom his mother despises. The conflict which keeps them from being together earlier is their own pride and stubbornness about what they want in a mate. Their friends root for them more than they do most of the time. Their eventual commitment to each other is epic.
The OC
Ryan comes from Chino and has a criminal past who wants to be with Marissa, an OC princess with a drinking problem. They are not the best couple. Seth is a loner who has crushed on Summer since grade school while Summer is a passionate girl who has no interest in nerd culture. This quartet goes to Mexico, college tours, and TWO proms. The parental complication on this show is the parents are nightmares who cannot function as grownups, with the lone exception of the great Sandy Cohen.
Quality romance requires connection, not cliches
This section of text here should be your most updated draft. The final draft. The best draft. The one with the highest grade. Were you required to write a third draft? No. But sometimes people want to keep working on a project until it is near perfect. Writing is a recursive act. First drafts are rarely perfect, and while one's writing might be better than others, that only means when they approach a second, third or fourth draft, that piece of writing will only improve. Writing is never perfect, only done.
Project #1 will help you begin to develop the strategies you will need to rhetorically analyze and use different genres and to explore the ways in which genres function in our lives and in various texts. This will also allow me, your instructor, to get to know you better. This project is minimum of 1500 words, typed and double-spaced.
Your webpage should look as professional as possible, which means you should not force your viewer to search for the information you have crafted. Project #1 Final Draft and Reflection must be accessible on the page without forcing your reader to click on it. Do NOT only upload a Word file to the page. You can use the button feature for previous drafts, but the final draft must be posted on the page. If you are having trouble posting your draft or have questions, feel free to set up an appointment.
Project #2 Reflection
If you recall, each project requires you to reflect on what the composition of this project was like for you. In this project you were asked to select 3 artifacts from Pop Culture and perform a rhetorical analysis on them. This meant you had to look at the media you consumed not only for entertainment, but also asking yourself why it entertains. You learned terms like: mode, media, audience, purpose, rhetorical appeals, style and design. You also had to write this in 3rd person. This was a challenge. So reflect on that challenge.
Ask yourself these questions:
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What is one thing you learned about the writing process that you will carry over into Project #2?
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What will you remember to put into action regarding Classmate Feedback for the next project?
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What is your plan for revision?