Ethics and Public Speaking

							Ethics and Public Speaking
Chapter 2
Outline
•   Importance of Ethics in Public Speaking
•   Guidelines for Ethical Speaking
•   Plagiarism
•   Guidelines for Ethical Listening
What is Ethics?
• The branch of philosophy that deals with issues
  of right and wrong in human affairs
Consider the following case study
Case Study
• Your ethical decisions are guided by
 ▫ Your values
 ▫ Your conscience
 ▫ Your sense of right and wrong
Importance of Ethics in Public
Speaking
• Speechmaking is a form of POWER and carries
  with it heavy ethical responsibilities.
  ▫ “With great powers, come great responsibilities”
• The idea of public speaking is to gain a desired
  response from listeners—but not at any cost!
Guidelines to Ethical Speaking
1. Make sure your goals are ethically sound
 ▫ Job at a tobacco company
    One might not work there based on their belief that
     they can not ethically promote a product responsible
     for thousands of deaths and illnesses each year
    However, one might consider taking the job based
     on his/her opinion
 ▫ Unethical Goals
    Politicians betraying public interest for public gains
    Business leaders who defraud investors
Guidelines to Ethical Speaking
2. Be fully prepared for each speech
 ▫   From an ethical standpoint, the most crucial
     part of public speaking is to be fully informed
     about your subject.
Consider the following case study
Guidelines to Ethical Speaking
3. Be honest in what you say
 ▫       Blatant lying without regard for its consequences
         on other people
 ▫       Subtle forms of dishonesty are just as unethical
         Juggling statistics
         Quoting out of context
         Misrepresenting sources
4. Avoid name-calling and other forms of abusive
   language
Plagiarism
• Presenting another person’s ideas or language as
  one’s own.
• Global Plagiarism
  ▫ Stealing your speech entirely from another source and
    passing it off as your own.
• Patchwork plagiarism
  ▫ Stealing ideas from two or three sources and passing
    them off as one’s own.
• If caught, can be very embarrassing and have
  serious consequences on the repute of the person,
  their family and their accomplishments.
Guidelines for Ethical Listening
• Listeners have ethical obligations as well
• They are:
  ▫ To listen courteously and attentively
  ▫ To avoid prejudging the speaker
  ▫ To maintain the free and open expression of ideas