Your Responsibility
As A Speaker
Responsibility
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Responsibility –
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A charge, trust or duty for which one is
accountable
Ethics –
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The study of moral conduct – how people
should act toward one another
Responsibility
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Ethos –
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According to Greek philosopher, Aristotle,
audiences listen to and trust speakers who
demonstrate positive ethos (character)
Positive ethos includes:
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Competence – grasp of subject matter
Moral character – trustworthiness
straightforwardness and hones presentation of the
message
Goodwill – knowledge and attitude of respect toward
the audience and the particular speech occasion
Responsibility
Speaker Credibility –
 2500 years after Aristotle, things have not
changed much
 According to current research, people
place their greatest trust in speakers who:
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Have a solid grasp of the subject
Display sound reasoning skills
They are honest and unmanipulative
Genuinely interested in the welfare of their
listeners
Responsibility
First Amendment –
 Freedom of Religion, Speech and the
Press; Rights of Assembly and Petition

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Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom
of speech, or of the press; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.
Responsibility
Free Speech, what does that mean?
 Defined as – The right to be free from
unreasonable constraints on expression.
 Even when the targets of that speech
claim that it infringes on their civil rights
to be protected from discrimination.
 However…there are limits!

Responsibility
What are the limits?
 Speech that provokes people to violence
(incitement or “fighting words”)
 Speech that can be proved to be
defamatory (termed Slander), or
potentially harmful to an individual’s
reputation at work or in the community
 Certain kinds of speech that invade a
person’s privacy

Responsibility

There is a difference between whether the
issues or individuals you are talking about
are public or private.

More latitude is given if you are talking
about a public figure or a matter of public
concern.
Ground Rules for Ethical Speaking
Ethical Speaking requires that we adhere
to certain ethical ground rules.
 Being trustworthy
 Respectful
 Responsible
 Fair
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Ground Rules
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For a public speaker, trustworthiness
includes (but is not limited to):
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Revealing your true purpose to your audience.
Including omitting a fact that hurts your case.
You are better off acknowledging relevant
alternative view points
Not using misleading, deceptive or false
information. Manipulating information to
achieve a particular purpose is unethical
Acknowledging sources. Is essential,
otherwise it is plagiarism.
Ground Rules
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Respect is treating people right. For the ethical
speaker, respect means addressing audience
members as unique human beings and refrain
from personal attacks or rudeness.
Focus on issues rather than on personalities. No
personal attacks
Allow the audience the power of rational choice.
Sensationalist or lurid appeals rob people of the
power to exercise rational choice.
Avoid in-group and out-group distinctions.
Everyone wants to feel included. Do not exclude
audience members or make them feel victimized.
Ground Rules
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To help the audience feel included is to maintain eye
contact.
Avoid using jargon or specialized terminology.
Avoid ethnocentrism or the belief that the ways of your
culture are superior to those of other cultures.
Generalizing about an apparent characteristic of a group
and applying them to all of its members. This is
stereotyping based on racial, ethnic or gender of people.
Hate Speech is any offensive communication – verbal or
non-verbal – that is directed against people’s racial, ethnic,
religious, gender or other characteristics. Racist, sexist or
ageist slurs, gay bashing and cross burnings are all forms
of hate speech.
Ground Rules
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Responsibility – Consider the following:
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Topic and Purpose – Will it benefit the
audience?
Evidence and Reasoning – Are your
arguments sound?
Accuracy – Are the facts covered?
Honest use of emotional appeals – Are
they supported by fact?
Ground Rules
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Plagiarism – Passing off of another
person’s information as your own.
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Wholesale Plagiarism – Occurs when you
cut and paste material from print or online
sources and represent as your own
Patch-write Plagiarism – Occurs when you
copy material into your speech and rearrange
words or sentence structure to make the
material appear as your own
Ground Rules
Avoiding Plagiarism – Any source that
requires credit in written form should be
acknowledged in oral form.
 For each source you should alert the
audience to the following:
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Type of source (e.g. magazine, book, etc.)
Author or origin of the source (e.g. “In a Ken
Burns documentary on New York…”)
Title or description of the source (e.g. “In
Endangered Minds, author Jan Healy…”)
Publication date of the source
Ground Rules
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Must Source:
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Direct quotations – Verbatim statements from
a source.
Paraphrased statements – A restatement of
someone else’s ideas, opinions or theories.
Facts and Statistics – The source of any data
not gathered by you.
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Do not cite common knowledge – Information that
is likely to be known by many people.