"Lazy programmers do not like to write the same code more than once. Thus, a lazy programmer is much more likely to write code to be reusable and as applicable in as many situations as possible"

-- Bradley M. Kuhn
Picking Up Perl

 

Lazy Virtues is centered around the development and application of six key concepts for the composition classroom:

Commons-Based Peer Production. Benkler identifies CBPP as a new economic mode of production, adding to market mode (working by one’s self for the marketplace) and firm mode (working together under management). CBPP occurs when the costs of collaboration are extremely low and the nature of the work at hand is amenable to distribution over a network, such as the internet. For the writing classroom, CBPP means maximizing the value added to collaborative projects through individual creativity and allowing the writing teacher to assume the role of writing “coach,” and maximizing student autonomy (and thus capability) by allowing writers to select projects and/or topics based on their interests.

Authenticity. If there is staleness in the composition classroom, it is often found in students’ view of their audience. Most assignments ask writers to imagine one audience, and then compose instead for their composition instructor as a surrogate for that idealized, fictional audience. Ong’s notion that all audiences are fictional aside, CBPP assignments and wiki writing allow students to write for an authentic audience beyond the classroom. And in the case of the Wikipedia writing assignments explored herein, these audiences often write back. CBPP projects transform student perspectives about writing assignments, then, as students acknowledge an audience who depends upon accuracy and relevance of their work.

Professional Standards. By asking students to produce work relevant to a larger project, external to the classroom, which attempts to satisfy a real need, writers are put in the position where their writing has an undeniable impact. When students understand the audience and purpose for their writing in such an immediate fashion, they realize the value of correct form and content. With CBPP writing assignments, students are challenged and motivated to produce writing with accurate and relevant content for the overall project. And for that content to be acknowledged by the professional community, it must be credible in terms of ethos – with a reasoned voice which reflects a sense of  the values of that knowledge community.

Epistemology. Writing for CBPP projects which report knowledge, especially Wikipedia, involves students in the process of creating and producing knowledge according to the standards of a field. To be sure, some knowledge communities would distance themselves from the topic pages on Wikipedia, but in fact whether or not the Wikipedia knowledge community is embraced beyond that site, it has its own rules for deciding what kinds of knowledge are accepted, what kinds of knowledge are under review, and what kinds of knowledge are rejected. CBPP writing assignments develop epistemological awareness by asking students to participate in CBPP projects and understand the accepted knowledge making procedures for their project’s community, and, if necessary, to reevaluate and/or defend their contributions, when challenged, by the stated acceptable practices of that knowledge community.

Transition. The approach to teaching college writing described herein also works well because it reinforces the position of transition from general knowledge to specific and authoritative knowledge that the college writer is undergoing. As aptly described in Keith Hjortshoj’s Transition to College Writing, the first-year college student is moving from an environment where teachers are largely generalists (high school) to an environment with teachers of increasing specialization (college). First-year Composition plays a pivotal role in this transition toward greater specialty and expertise; as students get their bearings in the college environment CBPP writing assignments assist them in understanding the role of producing knowledge for our culture rather than only consuming it.

Laziness.  Again, “laziness” was used to describe the computer coding belief that it is preferable to re-use code by copying it, rather than re-writing it or authoring it anew. Expanded in this text, laziness refers to the larger concept of saving personal investment in work projects for those areas which require or emphasize individual creativity and might not render traditional rewards. Thus “laziness” in the writing classroom does not involve “re-using” the text of other writers through plagiarism, but emphasizing instead that each writer should examine the project’s overall needs and create his or her own contributions based on an awareness of the project’s needs and one’s own creative desires. Laziness describes the condition of striking a balance between what needs to be done and what one wants to do, framed by an awareness of what has already been done.