Copying . . .

I was just grading some work and some recurring thoughts filled my mind.

I have some problems with copying. Not the fact that they actually are copying -- that's a given. It's a byproduct of required groupwork that forces the frustrated to do all the work and allows their "partners" to copy. That's neither here nor there at the moment.

No, my biggest problems actually are with the quality of the copying.
Once upon a time, you copied the work because you were too lazy to do it yourself, but you still wanted a good grade. These days, they're too lazy to copy it well because they don't even care about the grade.

As a result, I have to put up with the following:

Writing equations, expressions and even words that look kinda/sorta like the original but acutally aren't even close;

Writing only half of the work -- usually the left half or the right half, which really makes the development of those equations (if they have equal signs at all) rather amusing;

Copying from classmates who are even more clueless about the material. I guess if two of them have it and there's only one of me, it's two against one and they must be right;

Students who truly believe that they achieved something and that they must be really smart because they have four correct answers on a page, none of which they found on their own, nor could they find again were I to give them a fresh paper;

and, finally, one of my colleagues continually asking me, "And this surprises you, Burke? Why are you always so surprised?"