Goodness me. The second round of applications you posted were truly shocking. I am still bemused as to how 'Zip' thought the one giant sentence application was OK?
I've read a few of the applications for 'potential' employees of my Uncles business. I cannot believe how little effort some people put in. Like a few people said above, if they have problems writing the covering letter, then get someone to read over it.
At University I have a close friend who is Greek. He sometimes struggles to get himself across in a way that would reflect well upon him. All it takes is a friend like myself or similar to skim through, spot the mistakes and highlight them.