I'm a T.A. for a high school English teacher in the area. Every once in a while he'll call me up and tell me he's got a stack of papers for me to grade. I'll read them and mark them up and take them back to him. Well, right now I'm working on a stack of about 60 "research" papers on capital punishment. It's not very fun. For one thing, it's kind of a depressing subject to read so much about. For another thing, these kids can't write. Many of them have a weak grasp of the English language. It's rare for me to find a paper written in complete, clear sentences. So when I find a sentence with a noun and a verb, and commas in the right places, I pause. Then I type it into Google. And then I (more often than not) find the article from which this student has plagiarized. I make a note of the website so I can let the teacher know, and then I repeat the process. It's bad. I'm kind of sick of it, and I'm only half way through the stack. *Sigh* Well, I guess this post doesn't really have much of a point, except allowing me to vent. Thanks.