You as an Ethical Speaker. Ethical considerations in public speaking are inescapable. Ethical public speaking respects the integrity of ideas and focuses on the impact of communication on listeners. Respect for the integrity of ideas means meeting the demands of responsible knowledge, carefully using communication techniques, and avoiding such practices as quoting out of context and plagiarism. Responsible knowledge is useful knowledge. It requires having up-to-date information on the major points of a topic, what the most respected experts have to say about it, and how these points affect your immediate audience. Plagiarism is intellectual theft. Being convicted or even suspected of such a crime can damage your ethos beyond repair.
Concern for listeners comes as you develop an “other” orientation in your public speaking class to balance the egocentrism, or excessive preoccupation with the self, that you may bring to such a class. You can solve the problem of adapting to the many cultures that may be represented in your class if you
base your appeals in a global code of ethics.