The unnamed 13-year-old girl submitted the essay to a teacher in a state secondary school in the west of Scotland and explained that she found it "easier than standard English".

The essay began: "My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kds FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc."

The Times offered a translation: "My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York, it's a great place."

But the girl's teacher was flummoxed "I could not believe what I was seeing. The page was riddled with hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate," she said.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority, which monitors standards in Scotland's schooling system, has expressed concern about the problem in its report on last year's exams.

"There must be rigorous efforts from all quarters of the education system to stamp out the use of texting as a form of written language so far as English study is concerned," Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, said.

She criticised the trend over the past two decades to emphasize spoken as opposed to traditional language - something that is clearly reflected in the text message shorthand.

Cynthia McVey, a psychology lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, said texting was second nature to a generation of young people.

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