Assignment One

Mariah Romero
Background Information:
It is set in a town called Rosewood in Pennsylvania. This show follows a group of friends, Aria
Montgomery, Hannah Marin, Spencer Hastings, and Emily Fields. They fell apart when the
leader of their group Alison DiLaurentis. One year later, this group of girls received a text
message from a mysterious person named A who threatens to expose their deepest darkest
secrets. They join forces to figure out who this A person is and they gather the different clues
that A left them.
Figured world: A figured world is a large social structure that has specific rules and
convections for appropriate behaviors.
Pretty Little Liars is about four girls, Hannah, Spencer, Aria and Emily. Who are trying
to figure out who killed their friend Alison. The Killer was known as A and this A person
tormented the girls by black mailing them with their dark secrets, coming after their family, etc.
It is mostly placed in the girls town Rosewood. I plan to focus on season 3 because that is when
who we thought was A changed and it the show atmosphere. The communication is mainly done
through cell phones and in person conversation. The A person only contacted the girls through
texting or leaving messages on walls. Many times the girls will meet in the coffee shop to discuss
the different clues that they have received from A or they are at each others houses. Loud noises
are a major distraction because in their town is was quiet and when loud noises happen it usually
is not a good thing. Most of the times it is when A is scaring the girls or attacking them. It is
expected for to a clue from A and for the girls to get closer to trying to find out who this A
person was and what happened to Alison. Its acceptable to keep secrets from adults or from other
close friends that are outside of the group. Its inappropriate to get close to new comers right off
the back and to let them know what is going on. The Community of practice would be Aria,
Hannah, Spencer, Emily because they are all working together to figure out who is targeting
them and why.
Actors: Actors is a person that plays a specific role within the community.
Hannah Marin: Once was overweight and was mocked by Allison for it. After Allisons
death, Hannah lost a much of weight and became the it-girl of the group. She took over
Alisons spot as the most popular girl in Rosewood High. She is not the brightest but she
sticks up for her friends through everything.
Spencer Hastings: Is the brains of the group. Very intelligent and ambitious, she tries to
live up to her parents high expectations by being perfect in everything she does. Her
biggest rival is her older sister, Melissa.
Emily Fields: Is the jock of the group, she was a competitive swimmer on Rosewoods
swim team. She is the sweetest and shy of the group. She is very trusting of others. She
was the closest to Alison before she died.
Aria Montgomery: Is the most outgoing in fashion and she picks what she sees fits for
acceptable behavior. She began a relationship with an older man named Ezra, who turns
out to be her English teacher. Most of the drama happened around her love life and
family life.
A: A is the antagonist of the story. A is a person who is going after Allisons friends
(Hannah, Aria, Spencer, Emily) and A is the suspect for Alisons murder. A knows all the

Comment [Office1]: This introduction is very vague.

Instead of using words like "it" or "this show", use the
name of the show in your beginning sentences. This
will prevent any confusion for the reader. - Lauren Bray
Comment [Office2]: I think you forgot to complete this
statement. It is unclear to me what happened to Alison
DiLaurentis. You should add to the sentence. Gary
Watts

Comment [Office3]: Good job including this, but I would

give examples of secrets they have hidden or any other
rules and conventions that take place. Including
examples will help the reader to understand why this
behavior is appropriate/inappropriate. Maybe give
some examples of threats that they receive or why they
behave the way they do. - Lauren Bray
Comment [Office4]: All the actors examples are great.
You used great detail and gave good characters
descriptions. This very helpful to the reader. Gary
Watts

Comment [Office5]: The actor descriptions were great.

They were detailed and gave enough background
information on the characters. I feel like I know the
characters better now. Gary Watts

girls secrets, where they are, what they are doing at all times. In the second season we
find out who A is and it turns out to be Hannahs close friend Mona. Mona hated Alison
due to Allison bullying her. Mona is very smart and sneaky but the real question did
Mona do everything by herself or did she help? Is there more As lurking around?
Artifacts: Artifacts are the ideas, physical objects, emotions that has a meaning to that
community.
The main emotion throughout the show is being scared: Hannah, Spencer, Emily, and
Aria are always having to look over their shoulders for A in fear of their secrets being
release in the air or A coming after their family.
Communities of Practice: A community of practice is where those people who share similar
interests grow together as people. Where they do different activities together as well as
helping and sharing information with each other.
The Parents of the girls all share with each other about their concerns for their daughters
behavior. They share each their experiences with one another.
Domain: Is a group of people who share a common interest in some field, if they have a
membership to said domain they have a commitment to the domain and distinguishes them
from other members.
A group: they all had problems with Allison/ the rest of the girls and they want revenge
for it.

Comment [Office6]: Adding this background of A helps

the readers who have never watched the show
understand A's intentions. You did an adequate job at
describing the characters and it was all very well
organized. You kept it neat enough and not too
complicated, even though it's a very complicated story
line! - Lauren Bray

Comment [Office7]: Highlight the artifact that you are

talking about. The description is good but I don't know
what the artifact is. Explain what "A" is. Michael
Rowlands

Comment [Office8]: I think your definition for domain is

great. However, you could add to the example of
domain. I don't know who "they" is and you could be
more specific. Gary Watts

Practices of the community: This is essentially a group of people who work together. They
share similar stories and resources such as people in their network or maybe a way of
addressing a reoccurring problem.
Hannah, Spencer, Emily, and Aria: They are working together to figure out who is
blackmailing them and why that person is doing what they doing to them.
The Police: They are trying to solve Mayas murder and Alisons missing body/casket.
Literacy Practices: It is the ways to commutating that is either written or spoken in person.
Texting: The main communication through out all show. This was the main way for A
to communicates with the girls.

Comment [Office9]: Your definition of Literacy Practice

is well written. I would add a little more detail to the
example though. Explain what "A" is. Michael
Rowlands

Observations:
Pretty Little Lairs
Season 3, Episode one It Happened That Night
3 mins- Season starts off by recapping what the major shocks that happened in season 2. Which
was that Mona being A, Officer Garrett Reynolds was charged with the Murder of Alison
DiLaurentis, and Emilys love interest Maya was murdered. After the recap the scene is place in
Spencers house and Aria, Hannah, Emily and Spencer are sitting around the fireplace, drinking
and talking what they did over the summer. As the girls talk they are all laughing and joking but
Emily was drinking way more than the rest of the girls and seem to be more down than the
others. Spencer makes a toast to them making it to Senior year and everyone cheer but Emily as
she said Not everyone made it talking about Maya who was killed. The atmosphere changed

Comment [Office10]: Including this recap is helpful to

the reader because they can more easily pick up on
what's going on now and why. If you didn't include this
recap, it would be very confusing. You showed that you
are considering the reader. - Lauren Bray

instantly it became very sad and silent as the girls thought about Maya. Emily then says To
Maya in a very sad low voice while taking slip from her cup. Hanna comforts Emily and the
rest of them said To Maya also in low sad voices.
7 mins- Aria wakes up Hannah and finds Spencers back door being open. Spencer comes down
stairs saying that she could not find Emily anywhere. Hannah quickly grabs her phone and starts
calling Emilys phone. The scene goes to Emily holding her phone in her hand as it ringing and
having a shovel in the other hand. Emily looks like she is in a trace. The camera zooms out and
we see Emily is standing at the end of an open gravel which happens to be Alisons gravel and
the casket is open with no body in it. The theme song of the show comes and afterwards we
come back to being in the cemetery, the rest of the girls are with Emily trying to figure out how
she got there in the first place. Spencer ask Emily for her phone and looks through it, she finds
that Emily received a block call. Spencer ask Emily if she remembers who she talked to but
Emily is still very drunk and only remembers being at Spencers house one minute and then the
next she is at the grave getting the call from Hannah. Spencer still looking through Emilys
phone, finds that Emily had actually gotten a call at midnight from herself but Spencer was
asleep during that time. Spencer quickly takes out her phone and realizes that someone had been
in her house and used her phone to call Emily. Spencer quickly also realizes that it was a set up,
Hannah and Aria grabs the shovel and buries it. Back at Spencers house, Spencer buries the
clothes Emily was wearing and they talked about Officer Garrett Reynolds and who helped him
kill Allison and Maya.
14 mins- After Hannah and Aria got rid of the shovel, they were sitting in Hannahs car when
they spotted Lucas coming out of a building and they duck down and watch him as he leaves off.
In the next scene, all the girls left to go to Spencers cabin so that they can talk about what
happened last night at the graveyard. At the cabin everyone agreed that what happened that night
did not happen. The story they are going to tell was that they talked about how wonderful senior
year is going to be, ate some marshmallows, and went to sleep at Spencers house. Aria at first
wanted to go to the police but Hannah talked her out of it since they really had no evidence.
Emily was shaken by last night also was talked into agreeing with the story. The scene cuts to
Aria waking up from a nightmare at her boyfriend/English teacher, Ezras apartment. Ezra
knowing about A comforts her and tells her that A can not hurt her anymore. Ezra then picks
up the newspaper and asks Aria if she had heard about Allison body being taken out of the
ground. Ezra starts talking about what connection Maya had to Alison that would have lead to
Garrett killing her. Ezra asks Aria what was coming up and Aria responded it was Labor day
which also is Alisons one-year anniversary of being gone. The scene cuts to Hannah shopping
with her mom. Spencers mom (the defense attorney) comes into the store to talk to Hannahs
mom about the case against Garrett. Also about how the girls were finally having a normal life.
25 mins- Hannah goes visits Mona (A) in mental intuition. Hannah is trying to get through
Mona but Mona is silent and is staring right through her. Hannah really just wanted figure out
what happen to make Mona hate her and why she did what she did to her and the girls. Hannah
did not get anything from her so she left. The scene cuts to all the girls at school, Spencer and
Aria are talking about how Arias dad is still not okay with her dating Ezra. Then Aria goes into
the bathroom and as her was in the stall she hears some noise. She calls out is there someone
here?. She then spots someone wearing all black with their hood on (this is what A would

wear). Aria begins to panic as she fears that it is A even though Mona is locked away. This
person goes up the stall and Aria begins screaming. Soon after Hannah and Spencer come in the
bathroom and finds Aria on the bathroom floor, scared out of her mind and crying. Hannah and
Spencer comfort her and reassuring that Mona was locked up and can not hurt them anymore.
30 mins- Aria is helping her pack her things since her mom and dad are separating due to having
a lot of problems in their relationship. Aria blames them separating on her relationship with Ezra.
Arias mom reassures her that was not the case. The scene cuts to Emily in the coffee shop and
Toby walks up to her. They begin to talk about how toby moved out and he said how much he is
glad to be free. Emily asked about how Jenna (his sister) is doing, he reply that he does not really
know. They then begin to talk about what happened to Allison grave site and he was just
disgusted with whoever could do that and Emily is trying to put on a brave face and seem like
she does not know about what happen. Emily then says she had something important to tell him.
The scene is then cut to Spencer sitting in her car at night. She gets out of her car in front of a
closed down resort called Lost Woods Resort. She begins to walk into the woods.
Season 3, Episode 2
Blood is the New Black
3 mins- This episode starts off with Spencer, Aria, and Emily in class. Arias mom is teaching
the class and as she is talking about everyone needs to take notes, Emily is going through her bag
when she pulls out this necklace with teeth on it and it said Dead Girls Cant Smile. Emily
freaks out and runs out of class, Aria and Spencer run after her. Emily runs passes Hannah going
towards the bathroom all the girls now follow her to bathroom, confused about what happened.
Hannah, Spencer, and Aria walk into the bathroom to find Emily still upset and washing her
hands. Aria asks Emily what was wrong so Emily pulls out the necklace and hands it to Aria.
Aria freaks and passes it to Hannah who then passes it to Spencer. Aria ask if those were real
teeth and if they were Alisons teeth. Emily who is still freaked out and wanted the necklace
gone. Aria starts to get mad and saying how someone stole Allisons bones and now are they
going to start getting pieces of her too. Spencer still looking at the teeth, says that the teeth are
not even human. But Hannah said they was real human teeth.
7 mins- While the girls were talking the necklace, they heard girls coming into the bathroom, so
they all rush into a stall. Aria starts talking about how they need to go to the police and stop
digging themselves a hole. Aria believes that A is trying to frame them for Alisons body
being gone. Spencer strongly disagrees being that they have already lied to the police before.
Emily does not want to get the rest of the girls in trouble so she volunteers to take the blame for
everything. The other girls disagree with her and then Emily says just get rid of the necklace.
Hannah grabs for the necklace and Aria having it in her hand drops it into the toilet. Spencer
starts to reach into the toilet for the necklace but then the school bell rang and she moved her
hand which caused for the toilet to flush, causing them to lose the necklace. Spencer wants
Hannah to go visit Mona at Radley to get more information out of her and Spencer was going to
go to Garret to also get more information. While walking through the halls Emily was expressing
to Aria and Emily about how she might fail the 11th grade and how she missed a lot of school. As
they were talking Aria notices a blonde woman talking to the principal and she figures out who it
is was, it is Meredith Sorenson (Arias Dad had affair with Meredith).

14 mins- Aria questioned Meredith about why she was at her school. And Meredith said she was
applying for the open teaching job. As Spencer is talking to Garret, he hints at the fact that some
has been lying to her about their medical records. Spencer all confused asks him if it was Alison,
he didnt respond and then she asks if it was Jennas and he doesnt respond either. He motions
for the prison guard to take him back. Spencer still asking if it was Jennas records he was
talking about. Hannah is now at Radley talking to Mona, telling about the stuff that has been
happening at school, trying to get Mona to talk to her. Mona does not respond and just stares at
Hannah. Hannah gets very upset and starts telling Mona how she owes her since Hannah did not
tell the police about Mona trying to run her over. Emily meets Ezra for help for her make up
English exam. Emily was very uncomfortable with Ezra being that he is dating Aria.
25 mins- Spencer ask Toby whether of not he knew where Jenna went after music camp. Toby
didnt really know because his parents were trying to give her space after her eye surgery (she
was blind because of Alison) didnt work. The girls were at school walking to Arias locker and
when she opened it, she found an envelope with an earring in it. It then goes into a flashback
with Aria and Alison breaking into Arias fathers office to see if they can find any evidence that
he was still seeing Meredith. Alison finds an earring in the couch that matches the earring that
was in Arias locker in the present time. Aria then looks in the couch and finds the other
matching earring. Aria gets mad at the fact her father is still seeing Meredith and Alison tells her
the best way to get Meredith out of her life to show her father the type of person she is. So they
began to destroy he office and make it seem like Meredith did it. Now it flashes back to the
present time. Hannah ask if Aria been keeping it and she responds no because she put the
earrings in Alisons casket. So the girls now know someone stole them out of Alisons grave.
Spencers mom finds out she went to the prison to see Garrett. Her mom tells her to never go
back because it was not Spencers job to question him about what happened.
30 mins- Aria is sitting in her room looking at the earning, when she gets a text from A saying
Daddy needs to know. Or I let the other one go. To the police. Night-Night. A. Aria then
hears movement outside of her window and she looks around but didnt see anyone. The next
day Aria tells her dad that it wasnt Meredith that trash his office, it was her. Her dad gets upset
because he nearly called the police on her and said some harsh words to her. Her demanded that
she gives Meredith an apology. Toby shows Spencer Jennas eye drops that was used for when
she got her surgery and Toby thinks that Jenna can actually see because she keeps renewing her
prescription for the eye drops.
Season 3, Episode 3
Kingdom of the blind
3 mins- The girls find out that Jenna can actually see and that she has been faking it. As they
were walking the hall, they hear the principal yelling at Lucas about his grades. Lucas walks in
front of them and gives them a dirty look and walks away. Hannah follows him and asks him
what happened. He said that he wasnt being a positive student anymore and that was negatively
impacted his grades. He then pulls out a lighter and burns the paper and throws it in the trash
can. Hannah freaks out and tries to put out the fire but Caleb comes to her rescue and puts it out.
He is very confused on what happened.

7 mins- Hannah explains to Caleb what happened in the class with Lucas. Caleb is trying to
convinces Hannah that Lucas is just going through a phase of being a bad boy. Hannah wants
Caleb to go talk to Lucas and Caleb said he doesnt want Hannah to go to Radley to see Mona
again. Aria tries to get closer to Jenna to expose her about being able to see. The girls talk about
how Jenna might be apart of the A team and they began to talk about whoever took Alisons
casket has all the stuff they put in there. Emily talks about how it might be a trap though.
Suddenly Emily get a text from Arias mom about her English make up test. Emily got a 94% on
her test and she knows it now right because she left the back of the test blank. Emily thinks
someone went in and changed her grade.
14 mins- Caleb goes and talks to Lucas and what is bothering him. Caleb tells Lucas that he
knows about A and Lucas hits that its not over and he shouldnt be close when it happens.
Emily goes to talk to Arias Mom about her grade and ask her if it was correct. She recurs Emily
that her grade is correct. Emily expresses to her that she couldnt have gotten a 94 on the test
because she did not complete the test and how she thinks someone did something the test before
she got it and that she did not do it. Arias mom tells Emily that her grade is correct and her test
was completed. Spencer and Melissa (her sister) was at home and Spencer asks her about
Washington. Their mom walks in and has to talk to both of them. She tells them that she is going
to resent Garrett in his case and she was doing it for free. Spencer is very upset at this because
she does not understand why her mom would defend him after he killed Maya. Spencer is also
upset that Melissa is not saying anything about it and she said that it had nothing to do with her.
Emily tells Aria that she thinks her mom finished her test for her and Aria does not think its a
bad thing being that it isnt A. Spencer asks Melissa how does she feel about their mom
working on Garrett case and Melissa does not feel anything about it.
25 mins- Aria is playing the keyboard in Jennas house as Jenna is playing the flute. Jenna
begins to ask about how Emily was and talked about Emily sounds strong but she thinks she can
only handle so much Aria talks about how someone took Alisons casket. The girls are back at
Spencers house and they are talking about Spencers mom is defending Garrett. Hannah talks
about how maybe Garrett was the one who got Melissa pregnant and thats why Spencer mom is
doing what she doing for him. Spencer does not want to believe that her sister got pregnant by
Garrett. Hannah goes visit Mona again at Radley. Mona this time is talking and happier. Mona
said they changed her meds. As Hannah is leaving she sees Lucas go into Radley visiting
someone.
30 mins- As Hannah walks out of Radley she sees Caleb waiting outside for her. He is very mad
that she came back after they had a deal that she wouldnt go back. Caleb starts calling Mona a
crazy person and Hannah starts defending her saying that he doesnt understand her. She needs
help and Hannah wants answer to what happen with Mona. Hannah then notices Lucas leaving
Radley. Hannah questions Lucas about visiting Mona and he said that she doesnt even know if
Mona is really crazy or not. Hannah doesnt understand why Mona would fake being crazy and
Lucas explain how it was better and safer than being in prison. Hannah ad Aria are in Hannahs
car watching to see what Jenna is doing. Spencer posing as her sister calls the hospital that
Melissa said that she was at, to get an abortion. But the lady on the phone said they had no record
of Melissa being there.

Interview Questions:
Interviewed Cameron Brophy
1. Why do you believe Maya was killed?
- Nates revenge for not loving him
- Knowing something about Alison
2. Tell me what you like about this season of Pretty Little Liars?
- We find out more about Monas life as A
- Adds more mystery to the story line.

Comment [Office11]: This answer may come across as

partial info to the reader. What may he know about
Alison? Why does he think that this could be a reason
for Maya's death? This question was a little too broad
and I wish it would have asked for more explanation
from the interviewer. - Lauren Bray

3. Do you believe Mona is only person being A? Why or why not?

- No, it is too difficult for one person to handle
4. Why does Hannah, Spencer, Emily, and Aria choose not to go to the police?
- They are afraid that A would do something to hurt them or their families
5. How do u think the story line would change if Mona was not A at all?
- It would definitely be different because no one else had as big of a motive as she did
to become A

Comment [Office12]: Your interview answers could be

longer. The answers are short and could be explained.
You did have some great questions though. Gary
Watts