se. In this approach, the relationship between the audience and the communicator is most important:
Audiences sense a joining of interests through style as much as through content. Burke says the effective communicator can show consubstantiality by giving signs in language and delivery that his or her properties are the same as theirs (Griffin 309).
The tone of the speech is set by the opening as Hilary Rodham Clinton first offers greetings to the assembled wives of the heads of state and governments, including the wife of the president of Panama, where the meeting is being held. She also makes special mention of the reason for then meeting--the Seventh Conference of the Wives of Heads of State and Governments of the Americas, noting that this is the third time she has appeared at one of these conferences. She then offers praise to the people of Panama and elaborates on her recognition of the hostess for the meeting, Mrs. Perez Balladeres. She also offers more praise for the state of Panama and calls for a closer link between her country, Panama, and the other countries of the Americas. In fact, she praises Panama specifically as a country that has such diversity that it could serve as a microcosm of all the Americas.
The style is conversational, communicative, and at a level tone in keeping with the nature of the occasion. Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to persuade her audience about a number of political and societal needs that have to be met, but she is doing so in a logical and calm manner, guiding their thinking without being inflammatory. This is clear from the lengthy opening noted above as she recognizes all the people present and gives them their due in terms of their rank in society.
Jerry Tarver offers a rule about oral communication when he indicates that "because listeners cannot reread a spoken statement, oral language must be simple and use more repetition" (Osborn and Osborn 313). Hillary Cl...