Re: The Personal

[COBLENTZ@DT3.DT.UH.EDU]

One of the provisos I always include in personal experience essay assignments siis (that is)that if anyone confesses to an unreported crime, I am obliged as
a citizen to report it to the police.  Talk about chilling effects! This
may seem to some of you gratuitously officious.  However, students do 
confess in this essay to all kinds of outrageous behavior. The statement 
opens the door to very opening discussions of audience and ethics. In the
networked classroom this semester, it also led to a lively consideration of
how to cope with the apparent anonomity of that medium.  In fact, they
discussed the possibility of a police bust of confessing deviants on Ricki
Lake, most of them wistfully.  

Linda Coblentz
UH-Downtown
coblentz@dt.uh.edu