The Relationship of Discourse and Authority- #4 Journaling Question

After an individual has completed the requirements of the degree or been advanced in his or her academic career by other means, there are still issues of authority to contend with. For example, standardized examinations seem to rate a student's intelligence solely off his or her performance on the examination. Unfortunately, a large population of intelligent students do not perform well on standardized tests, so this exam prohibits a plethora of qualified students from reaching their desired positions within the discourse community--i.e. graduate school. Luckily, Johns sees this issue as urgent and believes that the problems of authority, status, and control over community utterances should be discussed in literacy classes. She believes that by assisting students in analyzing authoritative texts and critiquing authority relationships, students will become more aware of these factors affecting their academic lives. Consequently, these students will hopefully be able to produce and comprehend texts that command authority within academic contexts.