ETHICS
AND
PUBLIC SPEAKING
“The ideal orator is a good
man speaking well.”
-Quintilian
THE IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS
Ethics is the branch of
philosophy that deals with
issues of right and wrong in
human affairs.
In an ideal world, as the Greek
philosopher Plato noted, all public
speakers would be truthful and
devoted to the good of society.
Yet, history tells us that the
power of speech is often abused
– sometimes with disastrous
results.
• As a public speaker, you will face
ethical issues at every stage of the
speechmaking process – from the
initial decision to speak through the
final presentation of the message.
“We should formulate meaningful
ethical guidelines, not inflexible
rules”. Your ethical decisions will be
guided by your values, conscience,
your sense of right and wrong.
ETHICAL DECISION
Sound ethical decisions
involve weighing potential
course of action against a set
of ethical standards or
guidelines.
GUIDELINES FOR
ETHICAL SPEAKING
1. Make sure your goals are
ethically sound.
2. Be fully prepared for each
speech.
3. Be honest in what you say.
4. Avoid name-calling and other
forms of abusive language.
5. Put ethical principles into
practice
• Being prepared for a speech
involves everything from analyzing
your audience to creating visual
aids, organizing your ideas to
rehearsing your delivery. Most
crucial from an ethical standpoint,
though, is being fully informed
about your subject.
The following violates the speaker’s duty to be
accurate and fair in presenting information:
• juggling statistics
• quoting out of context
• misrepresenting sources
• painting tentative findings as firm conclusions
• portraying a few details as the whole story
• citing unusual cases as typical examples
• substituting innuendo and half-truths for
evidence and proof
Name-calling – It is the use of language
to defame, demean, or degrade individuals
or groups. Such terms have been used to
debase people because of their sexual
orientation, religious beliefs, and ethnic
background. It includes epithets.
Epithets – words such as “fag”, “kike”,
“nigger”, “honkey”, “wop”, “jap”, “chink”,
and “spic”
PLAGIARISM
GLOBAL PLAGIARISM
• The most blatant – and unforgivable
– kind of plagiarism. It is grossly
unethical. It is stealing your
speech entirely from another
source and passing it off as your
own.
PATCHWORK PLAGIARISM
• occurs when a speaker pilfers
from two or three sources
INCREMENTAL PLAGIARISM
• It is when the entire speech is cribbed
more or less verbatim from a single
source or a few sources. It occurs when
the speaker fails to give credit for
particular parts – increments – of the
speech that are borrowed from other
people.
Quotations
• Whenever you quote someone directly,
you must attribute the words to that
person. It would make a strong addition
to your speech as long as you
acknowledge the owners/authors.
Paraphrases
• When you paraphrase an author, you
restate or summarize her or his in your
own words. You need to acknowledge
the author or the person because still,
with just a fair amount of his/her
language, you are still using his/her
opinions, ideas, and judgment.
GUIDELINES FOR ETHICAL
LISTENING
1. Be courteous and attentive.
2. Avoid prejudging the speaker.
3. Maintain the free and open
expression of ideas
