Writing skills

I don’t think I’m the best writer in the world, but I am often very surprised by how BAD other people’s writing can be! They will brag to me about how they got an “A” on some kind of college term paper and ask me if I’d like to read it. When I say yes, and they proudly show it to me I am at a complete loss of what to say to them! More often than not, there are several spelling and grammatical errors, and their skill level appears to be that of a fourth grade student! What I want to say is “your writing is terrible!” but I don’t want to hurt their feelings! So what do I do? I say something like “what an interesting topic!” But I feel like I’m copping out. What would YOU do?