Rhetorical. Strategies & Techniques

Rhetorical analysis is the examination of...

• testing procedures for the AP exam

• written ​texts to determine how the ​author shaped the content ​in order to achieve an ​identifiable purpose for a given audience

• architecture and history of the Rostra in Rome

What is one primary benefit of using the SPACE CAT framework to analyze a text?

• It focuses solely on identifying rhetorical devices.

• To identify the grammatical structure of a text

• To analyze the rhetorical strategies used by an author in order to achieve their purpose

• To critique the author's argument by highlighting logical fallacies

Which of the following questions is primarily answered in the SPACE portion of the SPACE CAT method?

• What do you understand about the text?

• How does the author organize their argument?

• How does the author appeal to logic and emotion?

• What is the author’s tone towards the subject?

Which of the following questions is primarily answered in the CAT portion of the SPACE CAT method?

• What is the context in which the text was written?

• Who is the intended audience for the text?

• What specific features make the text beautiful, persuasive, and/or powerful?

• What motivated the speaker to create the text?

What SPACE CAT category answers these questions?
Who wrote this and/or is speaking? What do we know about them?

What don’t we know about them?

Does this text have a particular meaning because of WHO wrote/said it?

• audience

• appeals

• speaker

• tone

What SPACE CAT category answers these questions?
What is the speaker hoping to accomplish by putting this out into the world?

• tone

• context

• exigence

• purpose

What SPACE CAT category answers these questions?

Who was the intended audience? The actual audience?

What did the speaker assume about their audience? How did those assumptions impact what they

said and how they said it?

• audience

• choices

• exigence

• appeal

What SPACE CAT category answers these questions?

What was going on in the world when the text was produced?

What were the biggest issues on the speaker’s mind, which they might be directly or indirectly

addressing?

How would this same text be perceived differently by a different audience or in a different time?

• speaker

• choices

• tone

• context

What SPACE CAT category answers these questions?

Why NOW for the speaker? What was the spark or catalyst that moved the speaker to act?

• exigence

• context

• purpose

• appeals

What SPACE CAT category answers these questions?

All the little moves an author makes to enrich their writing (structure, diction, figurative language, etc.)

Why does the writer make each choice?

How does word choice and phrasing impact credibility and bias?

• appeal

• context

• speaker

• choices