1. While listening to my best friend give a speech, I realize that it is word-for-word the
same as an article I recently read in National Geographic. This situation raises serious
ethical concerns related to plagiarism, credibility, and speaker integrity. According to the
ethical standards discussed in Chapter Five of Public Speaking: A Guide to Speech Prep
and Delivery, speakers are responsible for giving proper credit to their sources and
presenting information honestly. If my friend is presenting the article as their own
original work without citation, this violates the ethical principle of honesty and the
concept of intellectual property. From a moral perspective, plagiarism is wrong
regardless of the outcome because it violates academic integrity policies. The
consequences could include academic penalties and loss of trust. Ethically, I would feel
obligated to speak privately with my friend and encourage them to address the issue
before it escalates, because integrity in public speaking is essential to maintaining
credibility.
2. In the second scenario, I find a humorous story about a man being chased up a tree by a
moose and decide to change the story so that it happened to me. Although this might
seem harmless, it involves fabrication and misrepresentation. Chapter Five emphasizes
that ethical speakers must be truthful and avoid misleading their audience. By altering the
story to make it appear as my own experience, I would be engaging in deception. From a
virtue ethics standpoint, which focuses on character and moral values, honesty is a central
trait of an ethical communicator. Even if the story makes the audience laugh and
strengthens my attention, it compromises my credibility. Additionally, if the audience
later discovers the truth, my trustworthiness could be damaged. Ethical public speaking
