Note that right away the topic offers the great advantage of inclusion. Their experience is the reading to a large extent. In middle-class America, it is a major breach of etiquette to question consumer preferences, as long as they are not obviously harmful or illegal. Thus, when students order, say, a cheeseburger, a chocolate shake and a large order of fries, no one has the right to tell them that they should order a meal that is lower in cholesterol. While student affairs administrators can and should make the academic Consumer discourse differs fundamentally from academic discourse.
Academic discourse requires proof and evidence, while consumer discourse requires none.
Academic discourse acknowledges other authorities, while consumer discourse does not. The point is not to disparage consumer discourse, which would be extremely counterproductive in the classroom, but to use the differences between consumer discourse and academic discourse as a way of helping students conceptualize the academic enterprise. Hence, they feel surprised, puzzled and even betrayed when they find that consumer discourse is insufficient in the classroom. We might consider these differences in kinds of discourse from the perspective of Bloom's levels of cognitive development or those described in William Perry's Schema, but I hope the benefit of viewing them as cultural phenomena as well now seems clear. Our students are students, after all, and they are capable of learning.