GE Elec Chapter 2

• Speechmaking is a form of power and therefore carries with it heavy ethical responsibilities.
• Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with issues of right and wrong in human affairs.
• Ethical decisions involve weighing potential course of action against a set of ethical standards.
• 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.
• Make sure your goals are ethically sound

  • Your first responsibility as a speaker is to ask whether your goals are ethically sound.
• Be fully prepared for each speech.

  • The better you prepare, the better your speech will be.
• Be honest in what you say

  • Public speaking rests on the unspoken assumption that “words can be trusted, and people will be truthful”.
• Avoid name-calling and other forms of abusive language

  • As one writer explains, “Our identities, who and what we are, how others see us, are greatly affected by the names we are called and the words with which we are labeled.
• name-calling –  use of language to defame, demean, or degrade individual groups
• Epithets – words such as “fag”, “kike”, “nigger”, “honkey”, etc.
• Put ethical principles into practice

  •  As one popular book on ethics states, “Being ethical means behaving ethically all the time – not only when it is convenient”
• Plagiarism– comes from the Latin word “plagiarus” which means “kidnapper.”
• To plagiarize means to present another person's language or ideas as your own.
• KINDS OF PLAGIARISM

  1. Global Plagiarism
  2. Patchwork plagiarism
  3. Incremental Plagiarism
• Global Plagiarism

  • Stealing your speech entirely from another source and passing it of as your own
• Patchwork plagiarism

  • occurs when a speaker pilfers from two or three sources
• Incremental Plagiarism

  • occurs when the speaker fails to give credit for particular parts
• Incremental Plagiarism

  • Quotations
  • Paraphrases
• Quotations

  • when quoting someone directly, you must attribute the words to that person
• Paraphrases

  • when paraphrasing an author, you restate or summarize her or his in your own words
• GUIDELINES FOR ETHICAL LISTENING

  1. Be courteous and attentive.
  2. Avoid prejudging the speaker.
  3. Maintain the free and open expression of ideas.