Language
The language used by Hillary Clinton in her “Women's Rights are Human Rights” speech is formal but straightforward, making the address easy to understand by the general audience. Her style is official, but she makes the issue she discusses relatable by using numerous examples: “…women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countries”. (ll. 9…
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Choice of words
As the topic of the speech is women’s rights, and the context is a conference on this theme, the choice of words mirrors these aspects. The speaker makes numerous references to women’s lives all around the world, focusing on their daily activities, but also on the discrimination and gender bias they are subjected to: “They are being forced into prostitution, and they are being barred from the bank lending offices and banned from the ballot box.” (ll. 99-101)
Therefore, the speaker combines adjectives, nouns, and adverbs that generate positive images and emotions …
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Sentence structure
The sentence structure is rigorous and grammatically correct, as the speaker has prepared the speech in advance and has it in front of her while she is speaking. The sentences are mostly medium-length and long. The longer sentences are usually constructed by using enumerations meant to encompass as many examples a possible to support the speaker’s case:
As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not scho…
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Tone
Hillary Clinton’s tone is generally serious. Most of the speech is conveyed with the same firm attitude: “The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard.” (ll. 82-84)
Throughout the speech, Clinton uses eye contact, looking at all sides of the audience—which further suggests a firm position. You co…
