COMM322/PRAD122

PUBLIC ADDRESS

INSTRUCTOR: GÜLDEN HACIMEVLÜT ALYAZ

 2. Ethics and Public Speaking:

The goal of public speaking is to gain a desired response

from listeners.

Speechmaking is a form of power and therefore carries with

it heavy ethical responsibilities.
 The Importance of Ethics:

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with issues of

right and wrong in human affairs.
Questions of ethics arise whenever we ask whether a course of
action is moral or immoral, fair or unfair, honest or
dishonest.
Questions of ethics come into play whenever a public speaker
faces an audience.
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.

Adolf Hitler was unquestionably a persuasive speaker.

His oratory galvanized the German people, but his aims
were horrifying…
He (Hitler) remains to this day the ultimate example of why
the power of the spoken word needs to be guided by a strong
sense of ethical integrity.
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.
 Guidelines for Ethical Speaking:

1.Make Sure Your Goals Are Ethically Sound:

Your first responsibility as a speaker is to ask whether you
goals are ethically sound.
For ex: Melissa had a job in the public relations
department of the American Tobacco Institute. She has to
deliver a public speech about the cigarette industry.
2. Be Fully Prepared For Each Speech:

You have an obligation – to yourself and to your listeners

– to prepare fully every time you stand in front of an
audience.
3. Be Honest In What You Say:

Nothing is more important to ethical speechmaking than

honesty.
Public speaking rests on the unspoken assumption that ‘words
can be trusted and people will be truthful’
There are subtle forms of dishonesty.

They include 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, etc.
While on the subject of honesty in speechmaking, we should
also note that ethically responsible speakers do not present
other people’s words as their own.

They do not plagiarize their speeches.

4. Avoid Name-Calling And Other Forms Of Abusive
Language:
Our identities, who and what we are, how other see us,
are greatly affected by the names we are called and the
words with which we are labeled
This is why almost all communication ethicists warn public
speakers to avoid name-calling
A) Name Calling and Personal Dignity:
Name-calling is the use of language to defame or degrade
individuals or groups.
Such language is also a destructive social force. When used
repeatedly over time, it reinforces attitudes that encourage
prejudge, hate crimes and civil rights violations.
B) Name-Calling and Free Speech:

Name-calling and abusive language also pose ethical problems

in public speaking when they are used to silence opposing
voices.
A democratic society depends upon the free and open
expression of ideas.
5. Put Ethical Principles Into Practice:

‘Being ethical means behaving ethically all the time – not

only when it convenient.
Keep in mind the guidelines for ethical speechmaking we
have discussed and do your best to follow them…
PLAGIARISM:

Plagiarism comes from plagiarius, the

Latin word for kidnapper.
To plagiarize means to present another person’s
language or ideas as your own – to give the
impression you have written or thought
something yourself when you have actually
taken it from someone else.
 Global Plagiarism:

1. Global plagiarism is stealing your speech entirely from

another source and passing it off as your own.
Global plagiarism occurs because a student puts off the
assignment until the last minutes. Then, in an act of
desperation, the students downloads a speech from the
Internet…
 Patchwork Plagiarism:

2. Patchwork Plagiarism: Unlike global plagiarism,

in which a speaker pirates an entire speech from a
single source, patchwork plagiarism occurs when a
speaker pilfers from two or three sources.
Students get help from different sources. But
coping from a few sources is no less plagiarism
than is coping from a single source
When you give a speech, you declare that it is your work –
that it is the product of your thinking, your beliefs, your
language.

But,when you steal information from different sources,

your speech will not contain all those characteristics that we
mentioned above.
Instead, it was cut and pasted wholly from other people’s
ideas, other people’s words.

Itis also vital to consult a large number of sources in your

research. You have to write a speech with your own words
(a creative way)
Incremental Plagiarism:

3. Incremental Plagiarism: In global and

patchwork plagiarism, the entire speech is
cribbed more or less verbatim from a single
source or a few sources.
But plagiarism can exist when the speech as a
whole is not pirated. This is called
incremental plagiarism.
Incremental plagiarism occurs when the speaker fails to
give credit for particular parts – increments – of the speech
that are borrowed from other people.

The most important of these increments are quotations and

paraphrases.
a)Quotations: Whenever you quote someone directly,
you must attribute the words to that person.

b) Paraphrases: When you paraphrase an author, you

restate or summarize her or his ideas in your own words
 Plagiarism and the Internet

When it comes to plagiarism, no subject poses more

confusion than the Internet.

Because it so easy to copy information from the Web,

many people are not aware of the need to cite sources
when they use Internet materials in their speeches.
 Make sure you keep a record of the following

1. the title of the Internet document

2. the author or organization responsible for the
document
3. the date on which the document was last updated
4. the date on which you accessed the site.
You will also need to identify your Internet sources when
you present the speech.

It’s
not enough to say “As I found on the Web” or
“According to the Internet”.
 Guidelines for Ethical Listening:

So far in this part we have focused on the ethical duties of

public speakers.

Butspeechmaking is not a one-way street. Listeners also

have ethical obligations.
They are (1) to listen courteously and attentively;

(2) to avoid pre-judging the speaker; and

(3) to maintain the free and open expression of ideas.

1. Be Courteous and Attentive:

Justas public speakers have an ethical obligation to

prepare fully for each speech, so listeners have a
responsibility to be courteous and attentive during the
speech.
2. Avoid Prejudging the Speaker:

You can’t judge a speech by the name, race, lifestyle,

appearance or reputation of the speaker.

This does not mean you must agree with speaker

3. Maintain the Free and Open Expression of Ideas:

As we saw earlier, a democratic society depends on the free and

open expression of ideas.

As with other ethical issues, the extent of this obligation is open
to debate.