Basic Trope: A character is given a line to write multiple times as a punishment.
- Straight: After Alice roller-skates into her classroom, Bob, her teacher, makes her write "I will not roller skate indoors" twenty times on the blackboard.
- Exaggerated:
- The principal makes everyone in the school write lines, even the teachers.
- Bob makes Alice write it a hundred times.
- Alice gets made to write lines several times per episode.
- Bob makes Alice write her full name over a hundred times just because she forgot to put her name on her paper once.
- The line Alice must write repeatedly is a long paragraph detailing what she did.
- Downplayed: He makes her write it twice.
- Justified: Alice is a bit of a troublemaker, Bob is a bit strict, and this punishment is sometimes Truth in Television.
- Inverted: Bob makes Alice erase everything that's on the blackboard as a punishment.
- Subverted:
- Bob changes his mind.
- Bob's intent is to give Alice (or 2nd grade student Aliciana Eleanore Francisca Meadows) extra practice for her, currently atrocious, writing skills… any punishment is secondary (if not accidental).
- Double Subverted: He was changing his mind about the number of times Alice had to write "I will not roller skate indoors".
- Parodied:
- Alice writes "I am writing the same sentence over and over."
- Alice must write "I will not waste chalk writing pointless sentences repeatedly."
- Zig Zagged: Bob has trouble deciding over whether or not Alice should write lines.
- Averted: Bob does not give Alice lines.
- Enforced: The writers wanted to set up Bob as being a bit strict and/or avoid making Alice a Karma Houdini.
- Lampshaded: "How many times am I supposed to write this? I forgot."
- Invoked: Charlie dares Alice to roller-skate indoors to get her in trouble.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Alice refuses to break the rules.
- Bob refuses to punish his students.
- Discussed: "I had to write that so many times it lost its meaning."
- Conversed: "That teacher on that show is always making his students write lines."
- Implied: Alice is seen writing "I will not roller skate indoors" repeatedly on the chalkboard.
- Deconstructed: The school punishes so many students with lines that they run out of chalk.
- Reconstructed: The school forces students to write on pen and paper that the students buy themselves.
- Played for Laughs: There's a Running Gag where Alice writes a different punishment Once per Episode.
- Played for Drama: Bob is evil and Alice must write the lines exactly right or she'll be killed, exiled, or whatever.
I will not read the Writing Lines page in class.
I will not read the Writing Lines page in class.
I will not...
