The Ethics of Public Speaking

The most important part of a public speech is its truthfulness. Giving a persuasive speech might tempt the speaker to twist the truth a bit to prove his point and convince his audience of his ideology. But, it is unethical to deceive an audience by skewing the truth or omitting pertinent facts. Once a public speaker is exposed as being untrustworthy, he or she loses all credibility. The speaker's career may never recover from using unethical practices in only one speech.

When a speaker is unethical, the audience might not realize it while the speech is given. However, a skeptical member of the audience or a very interested member could do further research on the topic. With Internet resources so readily available to check facts and figures, an unethical public speaker is foolish to think that he or she will not be found out...