How This Ultimate SPACE CAT Example Will Actually Improve Your Students’ Writing

What is SPACE CAT?

SPACE CAT Acronym

If you want to teach rhetorical analysis to your students, the best system is SPACE CAT. This system has been honed from the College Board’s AP LanguageⓇ  for the rhetorical analysis essay, the first of three essays on the test. This mnemonic device means that each letter stands for a part of the rhetorical analysis. I want to be clear: my intention with SPACE CAT is to help my tenth grade students better understand a system for rhetorical analysis. Laying the foundation for AP LanguageⓇ , my students learn the basics that will help them become stronger writers. These examples are longer analysis and not the proper format for the AP LangⓇ test. 

To start, students will analyze the rhetorical situation which includes the speaker, purpose, audience, context, and exigence. Students will start by easily identifying the speaker. But it is not enough to just list their name. They should then discuss what they know about the speaker or what the text hints about the speaker. Students will then search for the purpose of the piece. Most often, analyzing a speech works best because the speaker normally states their purpose clearly. Students will then determine the audience which once again is normally addressed. Next, comes the context where students will look for relevant historical references or events that occur at the time of the text. Finally, students will determine the exigence or the spark that caused the writer to give the speech at this moment in time. 

Once students understand the rhetorical situation, they move on to CAT. First, students will find the rhetorical choices that the author is making. Next, students will find the appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) in the speech. Finally, students will determine the tone of the speech. Ready to teach this acronym but need a SPACE CAT English example? Keep reading below to see how I use Taylor Swift commencement speech to teach a SPACE CAT example. 

SPACE CAT AP LangⓇ Example

The Passage: Taylor Swift’s Commencement Speech

First, you need to select a nonfiction passage that has a strong and easily identifiable rhetorical situation. As well as lots of examples of rhetorical choices and appeals. Speeches are always great SPACE CAT examples because speeches are intended to convince the audience and use lots of rhetorical techniques to do so. As a Swiftie, there is no better choice than Taylor Swift’s NYU’s Class of 2022 Commencement Speech.

Speaker: Taylor Swift

Now that we have our text, it’s time to start at the beginning of the SPACE CAT. Clearly, we know Taylor Swift is the speaker but that is enough just to list her name. We need to analyze why this speaker was selected for this event. This speech is given to the Class of 2022 so looking at that time, we know that Taylor Swift is a rising musical star. Besides gaining popularity, Swift was awarded her honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from NYU. She even mentions in her speech, “I’d like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least, a doctor” (Swift 1). 

Check out how to incorporate relevant evidence while stating the purpose in this example. Because she is an international pop star, her relevancy and credentials, as well as her song title, made her a perfect choice as a speaker for this event as Swift explains, “As for me, I’m…90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called ‘22’” (Swift 1). 

Purpose: To Not Give Advice But Instead Share Life Hacks 

Next, students need to identify the purpose of the text. Once again, this is why a speech is a great option. Speakers tend to share their intention right in their speech. When looking at commencement speeches, the purpose is quite clear because they are addressing graduates. Swift is no exception. Swift not wanting to come across as giving unsolicited advice, she shares her intended purpose by explaining, “So I won’t tell you what to do because no one likes that. I will, however, give you some life hacks I wish I knew when I was starting out my dreams of a career, and navigating life, love, pressure, choices, shame, hope and friendship” (Swift 2). 

The other part of determining the purpose is what the speaker is trying to accomplish from their piece. Think of this part their call to action to the audience. Teach students to search near the end of a speech to find that purpose or call to action. In order to emphasize her message of embracing the cringe and taking on each new adventure with courage, Swift encourages, “I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about on the internet. Anyway…hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it” (Swift 5).

Audience: NYU’s Graduating Class of 2022

In addition, after identifying the purpose, students need to discover who is the intended audience of the speech. Another reason that I love a commencement speech is the fact that the speech normally addresses the audience immediately. Even better, a commencement speech is geared towards a specific university and class. In the opening statements, Swift address, “And let me just say, I am elated to be here with you today as we celebrate and graduate New York University’s Class of 2022.” 

Another more important piece of the purpose is to analyze the assumptions made by the author. For example, does the audience like the speaker? Do they agree with the speaker’s beliefs? Perhaps, the audience is going to be confrontational or hostile because they do not align with the speaker’s purpose. Students need to address those assumptions when looking at the purpose. For example, students could write Knowing that NYU’s graduating Class of 2022 leaves the university to go out in the world and seek advice from her, Swift imparts her life hacks that have helped led to her success to help these graduates find their success in life. 

Context: The World Coming Out of the COVID Pandemic

Furthermore, students will need to understand the bigger historical picture of the piece. Students will need to look at major events that have happened in the world that relate to this speaker, audience, and speech. A good place to start is to search for references in the text itself. Swift highlights the COVID pandemic by stating, “But I really can’t complain about not having a normal college experience to you because you went to NYU during a global pandemic, being essentially locked into your dorms or having to do classes over Zoom. Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores, but on top of that you also had to pass like a thousand COVID tests” (Swift 2). 

These historical references to COVID-19 are important to understand the motivation and intention of Swift. Here’s an example of how you can incorporate this context into the analysis. Considering that NYU’s Class of 2022 is one of the first classes to graduate after the COVID pandemic, Swift acknowledges their struggle as a way to gain the trust of the audience so that they heed her advice. 

Exigence: Invitation by New York University to Speak

Exigence is the trickiest part for students to understand. They understand the context but learning what the spark or catalyst of a piece is harder to identify. Once again, this is why I love using a speech. For this type of speech, the catalyst is NYU’s Class of 2022 graduation. Here’s the best way to address the exigence. Given that she is speaking to NYU’s graduating Class of 2022, Swift offers lessons that will help benefit the graduates in the future based on her personal experiences. 

Choices: Alludes, Utilizes Sarcasm, Parallels

After analyzing the rhetorical situation, we are ready to move on to CAT. Here we see the techniques and the effects of those choices. The C in SPACE CAT stands for rhetorical choices. First, you need to teach your students the rhetorical devices. Once students have that list they then need to understand the authors make those choices so they need to change those devices into strong verbs to show those choices. Here are a few examples: allusion becomes alludes, parallelism becomes parallels, and rhetorical questions become rhetorically questions. 

Swift employs quite a few different techniques in her speech but I am going to focus on three: allusion, sarcasm, and parallelism. When your students choose a rhetorical device, they then convert that technique into a strong verb and then share the purpose of that choice. Here are some examples from this speech. Swift’s alludes to her success and fame to allow her audience to feel that they are in on a secret and can trust Swift because they know the references she makes. She sarcastically ridicules her own life as a way to to feel a sense of comedic relief from the heaviness of her inspirational words. Finally, Swift parallels experiences in her own life to reiterates the ways that failure and life experiences have more to teach than success. 

Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Next, students will find an example of ethos, pathos, and logos in the speech. Every good speech appeals to the audience in these three ways. As a reminder, ethos brings a sense of trust, pathos appeals to emotions, and logos looks at the logic of the argument. Check out my examples for each appeal for this speech. 

Ethos: Swift wants her audience to show that she will not force her opinion on these students but should instead trust her experience starting young in her career. She proclaims, “I said to you earlier that I don’t ever offer advice unless someone asks me for it, and now I’ll tell you why. As a person who started my very public career at the age of 15, it came with a price. And that price was years of unsolicited advice” (Swift 3). 

Pathos: Swift invokes passion in her audience by acknowledging the fear they might have as they transition in their life as well as challenging them to embrace their freedom as they graduate. She highlights, “How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t. Scary news is: You’re on your own now. Cool news is: You’re on your own now” (Swift 5). 

Logos: Swift accentuates her point that every person is a writer by logically demonstrating how people write for different audiences. She explains, “And most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in your Instagram stories than you do your senior thesis. You send a different type of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home. We are all literary chameleons and I think it’s fascinating” (Swift 3). 

Tone: Earnest

Lastly, students need to determine the tone of the piece by looking at the word choices the speaker makes. Are they trying to come across as inspiring or harsh? Or do they want to be ambivalent? The tone helps to reiterate the purpose of the speaker. When having students analyze the tone, provide them with tone words so they can be more intentional with their tone choice instead of giving basic tones. 

Tone Example: Swift’s earnest tone suggests that while she does not believe she is qualified to advise college graduates, she offers her personal experiences instead of her educational achievements. 

Next Steps: SPACE CAT Rhetorical Analysis Essay Writing

Not sure where to go after the SPACE CAT rhetorical analysis process with your students? Once students have analyzed a speech using this SPACE CAT example, they are ready to get writing. Once my students have analyzed Taylor Swift’s Commencement Speech, they are ready to write a rhetorical analysis essay. 

Before we move on, I recommend first starting with the rhetorical analysis body paragraph. Check out my blog post How To Use A Rhetorical Analysis Body Paragraph Outline to Improve Your Student’s Writing. In this blog post, I will take you step by step on how I teach rhetorical analysis writing. Even better, I show how I teach my students to use a rhetorical analysis body paragraph outline to improve their writing. 

Once your students master the rhetorical analysis body paragraph, have them write their introductions. Check out my blog post, Teaching How to Write Rhetorical Analysis Introduction for Stronger High School Writers. In this blog post, I show you the five steps I use to teach essay introduction. 

Finally, students end with the rhetorical analysis conclusion. The last blog post in my rhetorical analysis series is Teaching How to Write Conclusion for Rhetorical Analysis in 5 Easy Steps. In this blog post, I break down conclusion writing into five steps. 

More Resources for Teaching Rhetorical Analysis

How To Use A Rhetorical Analysis Body Paragraph Outline to Improve Your Student’s Writing

Teaching How to Write Rhetorical Analysis Introduction for Stronger High School Writers

Teaching How to Write Conclusion for Rhetorical Analysis in 5 Easy Steps

What is SPACE CAT?

Creating a system for your students to rhetorically analyze a text is so essential. Students will be able to tackle any writing pieces. And, you will have stronger writing pieces that will make grading so much easier. Instead of missing key parts of the speaker’s intentions, students will thoroughly analyze the text. If you are ready to teach the SPACE CAT method, then I have just the resource for you. Check out my SPACE CAT Rhetorical Analysis handout. You will have everything you need to start with rhetorical analysis right away. So steal my SPACE CAT example to help your students better understand rhetorical analysis. 

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