What Are the Ethical Guidelines for Public Speaking?

Not offending your audience is an obvious example of adhering to ethics.

Any speaker must be mindful of his audience. Even a humorous speech should be written and delivered in a way that will not offend the listeners. Sometimes a speech can cause offence unintentionally because of insensitivity on the writer's or speaker's part. Consequently, it is important for any speaker to be aware of ethical guidelines.

Bad Taste

Speeches should obviously bear an audience in mind, but tasteless remarks about death, tragedies and disabilities should never be acceptable. A lot of people will find adult humor and profanity offensive. Others will not be offended by it at all. When preparing a speech for an audience with a wide range of ages, it is best to err on the side of caution and keep it clean. Speeches to children shouldn't include profanity, but they can still be considered distasteful if they include personal comments about a teacher's appearance just to induce laughter.

Bigotry

Any form of bigotry should never be included in a speech. If a speech includes bigoted comments regarding race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or age, no audience should have to endure it. Bigotry not only displays ignorance and a lack of wit, it also insults the intelligence of an audience. It is also particularly cowardly to attack a minority on an audience just to try and impress the rest of the crowd.

Humility and Truth

A speaker will have a positive impact on his or her audience when showing humility. When a speaker begins to talk about his achievements, he shouldn't preach to the audience and appear arrogant. Any serious speaker should also be truthful and not make false claims. A speaker shouldn't use inspirational quotes or comments and give the impression that they are his own.

Dignity

It can be difficult for a speaker to handle a negative response from sections of an audience, especially when the response is of an abusive nature. All speakers should keep their dignity and not respond by abusing their audience. Using wit as a response will show a speaker in a good light. It will give the speaker a better chance of not only winning over an audience, but also endear him to that audience.

References

• The Side Road: Ethics In Public Speaking: Stephen J. Boyd
• "The Art of Public Speaking"; Stephen E. Lucas; 2004; Chapter 2 Student Summary