language woes

What do they teach in school nowadays?

I am reading project reports and wishing I was not. If the student is from rural background and English was not taught to them, I can understand and be patient about the mistakes. But the students whose reports I am reading are from the so-called elite public schools, which pride themselves on teaching English, French, German, whatever. These kids openly admit that they do not know any of the Indian languages and then they turn in assignments/reports in badly written English, with SMS language sprinkled in liberally. I now routinely ask the students not to use SMS language and abbreviations while answering my questions in the exam.

One of the students has turned in a report where the introduction was simply cut and paste from various web sites. a) I wish to let the students know that I too can google b) Wikipedia and other web sites are not acceptable references c) If you do want to cut and paste, at least ensure that the report is readable. Simply cutting and pasting information that you like does not constitute a report or thesis or whatever you want to call it.

Grrrrr!