This study examines speech acts, modalities, and the use of the informal “you” in the instructions for the national tests in Swedish and Swedish as a second language, as well as teachers’ own instructions for written assignments. The study also aims to explore whether the usage of the components show a power relationship between the instructions and the students. The intention is then to use these linguistic components as markers of power and to investigate how the power relationship unfolds between sender and receiver.

The interpersonal metafunction in systemic functional grammar is employed as the method for this study, where each sentence in the instructions is broken down, analyzed based on its language acts, modalities, and use of “you.” These are then discussed in relation to systemic functional grammar and previous research. In summary, the results of the study indicate a power relationship between sender and receiver where the receiver, in more cases, ends up in a position of inferiority compared to the sender. The instructions and assertions provided cannot be counted or opposed by the student without risking their performance on the examination.

The results also indicate that the questions available to the students were sometimes leading, where the sender already had an idea of the answer they were looking for. Despite sometimes being leading, the questions can serve as guidance for students' thought process, thus functioning as a support for their writing, which also applies to offers and aids.