Ethics and public speaking

The aim of an ethical speaker is to accomplish his or her goals by any means necessary.

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The first responsibility of a speaker is to make sure her or his goal is ethically sound.

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Public speakers need to take their ethical responsibilities as seriously as their strategic objectives.

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If something is legal, it is also ethical.

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Unlike writers, public speakers can present other people’s ideas as their own without being guilty of plagiarism.

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Taking someone’s entire speech and passing it off as your own is a form of unethical behavior called global plagiarism.

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Whenever you quote someone directly in a speech, you must attribute the words to that person.

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Incremental plagiarism occurs when a speaker uses quotations or paraphrases without citing the sources of the statements.

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As a matter of ethics, audience members should listen attentively to and agree with everything a speaker says.

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If a Web page is not copyright protected, then it is ethical to cut and paste sections of the page into your speech without citing your source.

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