CEBU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

In consortium with
CEBU CITY MEDICAL CENTER- COLLEGE OF NURSING

GEC – PC Purposive Communication

WK 5: COMMUNICATION ETHICS
Communication
- Exchange of ideas among individuals
- Goal of communication: understanding
- Is important to be ethical in expressing your thoughts

Communication Ethics
- Is how a person uses language, media, journalism, and creates relationships that are
guided by an individual’s moral and values
- Being aware of consequences of behavior, Respect other point of views, and tolerate
disagreement
- Principles of ethics include being honest, fair, integrity of one’s words
- Is crucial due to its emphasis on the responsibility of people to keep society civil with
the concern of fake news becoming more prevalent

ETHICS IN PUBLIC SPEAKING

1. Be honest and Avoid Plagiarism
Plagiarism – taking of someone else’s words or ideas as if they were yours
- Credible public speakers are open and honest with their audiences.
- Honesty includes telling your audience why you’re speaking (thesis statement) and
what you’ll address throughout your speech.
- Number one trait that a leader should have

2. Identify Your Sources

- Allows those who are reading your work to locate your sources, in order to learn more
about the ideas that you include in your paper
- First step of ethical speech preparation, take notes as you research your speech topic
- Citing or documenting sources used in your research/speech to avoid plagiarism
- Gives proper credit to the authors of the words or ideas that you incorporated into your
paper.
- Citing your sources consistently and accurately helps you avoid committing plagiarism
in your writing.

Types of Plagiarism

a. Global Plagiarism
- occurs when a speaker presents a speech that is not his or her own
- Most obvious type of theft
Ex. A student finds a speech on the internet or borrows a former speech from a
roommate and recites that speech verbatim or word for word.

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 b. Patchwork Plagiarism
- When one “patches” together bits and pieces from one or more sources and represents
the end result as his or her own.
Ex. A student neglects to cite a source simply because she or he forgot where the idea
was first learned.

c. Incremental Plagiarism
- When most of the speech is the speaker’s original work, but quotes or other information
have been used without being cited.
Ex. You provide a statistic to support your claim, but do not provide the source for that
statistic.

3. Decide When to Cite

- When speaking publicly, you must orally cite all information that isn’t general
knowledge. You should use evidence or citations

4. Cite Sources Properly

- Oftentimes students do not cite a source because they’re unsure of how or when to cite
a reference.

Citation Guidelines
 MLA style in the humanities (e.g. literature or languages)
 APA style in the social sciences (e.g. psychology or education)

5. Understand Paraphrasing and Direct Quotations

- When writing a speech content, you must include quotation marks around an author’s
work when you use his or her keywords, phrases or sentences
- Important to support your speech claims

6. Promote Diversity
- Fostering diversity, or an appreciation for differences among individuals and groups
- Promoting diversity allows audience members who may be different from the speaker
feel included and can present a perspective to which audience members had not
previously been exposed.

7. Use Inclusive Language

- Avoiding sexist language is one way to use inclusive language
- Use of inclusive language helps us avoid offending or demeaning people based on
stereotypes or personal perceptions
- Aware of and value the different perspectives, identities, and ideas that other individuals
bring to the table

8. Avoid Hate Speech

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- Avoid communication that degrades individuals and humanity through distortion,
intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through the expression of intolerance and
hatred
- Words are very powerful and can impact your audience

9. Employ Respectful Free Speech

- Responsibility as a speaker to respect your audience
- Offending or degrading the values of your audience members will not inform or
persuade them.

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