Page 124 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 4 Ethical Speaking and Listening 91

we call these variations “the total rip-off,” “the partial rip-off,” and “the acciden-
tal rip-off.”

The Total Rip-Off
The case of the roommates who used the same speech is an example of a total rip-
off. Here a student simply gives someone else’s speech. Usually it is not a speech
from a published source, because such speeches don’t often fulfi ll the assignment.
Further, if the speech is well known, it is likely to be spotted instantly as a phony.
More common is the use of a speech from a classmate who took the class in a
previous term or who is in another section. This is clearly academic dishon-
esty equivalent to cheating on an exam or turning in someone else’s term paper.
Most universities and colleges suspend or even expel students caught in this sort
of dishonesty. If the speech was knowingly given to the plagiarist, the original
author can face the same penalties.
Avoiding this type of plagiarism is easy: Don’t offer a speech or accept the
speech of another person to present as your own. Most students who use other
students’ speeches do so out of desperation. Our advice is not to put off prepar-
ing your speech until the last minute. Give yourself as much time to research
and practice as you would to write a paper for an English class. Realize also that
giving a speech you don’t really know is likely to be a disaster. You will stumble
over words and be unable to answer questions. Even if you escape detection,
you’ll do yourself little good. If you simply cannot get a speech ready to deliver
on time, talk to your instructor. Policies will vary, but your own speech, given
late, even with a penalty, is far superior to a ripped-off speech given on time.

The Partial Rip-Off

More common than the total rip-off is the partial rip-off. Here a student creates
a speech by patching together material from different sources. Rather than quot-
ing the sources, the speaker presents the ideas as if they were original. The irony is
that the speaker has done a lot of work. The problem was not that time ran out.
Rather, the speaker wanted to be credited with the ideas.
The way to avoid this type of plagiarism is to give credit to your sources
orally and to make sure that you use material from these sources only to en-
hance your own speech. Rather than simply using the words of another, tell the
audience who made the statement or where the idea originated. Interestingly, re-
search has shown that under many circumstances, citing sources in your speech
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enhances your persuasiveness. Audiences are impressed that you have done
your homework. It is important to cite sources as you speak, not just in the bib-
liography of your written outline. Only by citing sources orally can you inform
your audience of where the words, phrases, and ideas came from, which is what
you need to do to build your credibility as a speaker. When citing sources orally,
be sure to do more than just give a vague reference (“I found this quote on the
Internet doing a Google search”). To be meaningful to an audience, an oral cita-
tion should include the name and qualifications of the author or source, the date,
and enough information for listeners to find it themselves. Internet sources pose
a particular challenge. Even if there is no person named as author, you should
be able to identify the organization responsible for the content. As we discuss
in Chapter 7, many seemingly authoritative Web sites are bogus. Be sure your