Proper language

I was intrigued over the weekend to hear the debate about NCEA and texting in exams being reopened. As the end of the year rolls around I, along with fellow ewxaminers, have come across the old bogey of the standard of writing in student assignments. Here we are in a tertiary institution and some students can't even string a sentence together or, as above, do so in txt rather than plain English. I must admirt that I was in two minds as to how to approach this. Ber an old fogey, and use the big red felt tip pen or get with the 21C and groove along to 'plse B tlrnt @ my lngwg" (translation ;please be tolerant of my language'. I decided on the former, as did most of my colleagues and it is refreshing to see that the governing body of NCEA have also come out with a watered down edict that texting is not recommneded and pupils could be marked down as a result. Makes you want to scream for Tom Waits.