2. Ethical Public Speaking
• Ethical speaking is a process, not a one-time event
when you present your speech to your classmates.
• This process begins when you brainstorm your topic.
• Every time you speak before an audience you have
ethical responsibilities to uphold
3. Two keys to ethical speaking
• There are two main keys to ethical speaking:
• Your ability to remain honest,
• Your ability to avoid plagiarism.
4. Honesty
• Credible speakers are honest with their audiences.
• This honesty includes telling your audience why
you’re speaking and what you will address during
the speech.
• A common example of dishonest speech can be found when a
vacation destination offers “complimentary tours and sessions”
which are really opportunities for a sales person to pitch a
timeshare to the unsuspecting “tourists.”
5. Honesty
• Another example of dishonesty comes in the music
industry where many cases of “melody lifting”
exist.
• For example, the Beach Boys song “Surfing in the
USA” is a note-for-note rendition of a 1958 Chuck
Berry song.
6. Honesty
Other examples of dishonest public communication
include political speeches that intentionally mislead
the public.
For example, former White House press aide, Scott McClellan,
claimed that President Bush misled the American people about the
reasons for the Iraqi war. McClellan said Bush manipulated sources
in order to gain support for the war, including Bush’s claim that Iraq
had weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were ever found.
7. Three types of plagiarism
• There are three types of plagiarism:
• 1. Global plagiarism,
• 2. Patchwork plagiarism,
• 3. Incremental plagiarism.
8. Global Plagiarism
• This is the most obvious type of plagiarism. It occurs
when a speaker presents a speech that is not
his/her own work.
• A classic example occurred at Parkersburg High School’s graduation ceremony in
2019 when Principle Kenny DeMoss delivered an address to the graduating class
that was word-for-word from Ashton Kutcher’s Teen Choice Awards speech.
• I can proudly note that the student who discovered this plagiarism and brought
it to the attention of the school board was one of my former speech students.
Mr. DeMoss was suspended for five days without pay.
9. Patchwork Plagiarism
• This is the most common form of plagiarism for
college students. It occurs when you copy text, or
sometimes pick-up and put-down copy, without
crediting the source, or with just a few alterations
to the copy.
• This is also called “paraplagiarism” to illustrate how an author
uses partial text sources with minimal original writing.
• Patchwork Plagiarism occurs if you create a speech by pasting
together parts of another speech, or another author’s work.
10. Incremental Plagiarism
• This type of “incremental plagiarism” occurs most
often in collegiate speeches. What happens is the
speaker uses quotes or other information and fails
to cite those quotes or information.
• This occurred recently in several of this class’ informative
speeches. Quotes were given. Information was noted. But the
source of that information was not cited. Or the speaker simply
said, “Evidence points to” or “Research has revealed.”
11. Incremental plagiarism
• Another example of this type of plagiarism would
be when a student speaker uses a direct quote
from someone without letting the audience know
who the source of the direct quote is.
• Understanding these three types of plagiarism is
key to preparing an honest speech.
