It's happening again!!

I have decided that I am no longer even mildly flattered by plagiarism. In fact, I am downright pissed, to the point of steam coming out my ears this morning when I signed into class!! My first paragraph in discussion in class, turned in last night:

Malcolm X and his family were typical African-Americans in their experience of racism and poverty in early to mid- twentieth century America. Malcolm X’ first experiences of racism came about as a result of the work of his father, the Reverend Earl Little, on behalf of Marcus Garvey and the black separatist movement. X states that the reason his father believed in this movement was that he had seen “four of his six brothers die by violence, three of them killed by white men, one by lynching” (Malcolm X, pge 4) Lynchings were far too common in the years after World War 1, 78 lynchings recorded in 1919 alone. (Divine, 710)

and then we have my alter ego's first sentence for her discussion, turned in about 5 hours after mine.

Malcolm X and his family were typical African-Americans in their experience of racism and poverty in early to mid-twentieth century America.

Look familiar? Later, in her third paragraph we find this statement:

One of Malcolm X' first experiences of racism was because of his father, the Reverend Earl Little, on behalf of Marcus Garvey and the black separatist movement. Malcolm X states that the reason his father believed in this movement was that he had seen "four of his six brothers die by violence, three of them killed by white men, one by lynching" (Malcolm X, pg 4).

At least with her third paragraph, she changed a few words to make it not quite so obvious. She directly lifted a three sentence paragraph from another student's discussion answer, misspellings and all, but I won't post that here. Citations and permissions and all. You understand. How in the hell does this chick sleep at night? How does she justify paying $650 for a class only to turn in someone else' work? Why waste the time and money? I get nervous, wondering if there might be a plagiarism issue, when I simply read something somebody else has written and think "Hey, that makes sense to me! I'm going to explore that idea and maybe write about it as part of my answer." Phrases and comments tend to stick in my mind, and I have to work very hard to not use those phrases as my own. I can't even fathom copying and pasting and turning something in as my work--especially going to the work of changing a few words here and there.