Oral COMMUNICATION

It is very important to be able to organize and find support for your speech. Chapter 12 discusses several different concepts that prove why this is beneficial for preparing a speech. The first concept that will be identified credibility. The second concept that will be discussed is how intellectual theft is a very serious issue, specifically in regard to plagiarism. I will apply credibility to a time where I had to write a paper with credible sources. Lastly, I will apply how plagiarism can get you kicked out of college.

Credibility is imperative to organizing and finding support for your speech. According to Floyd (2017) credibility is when information “is believable and trustworthy”. Supporting material must be credible from a reliable source so that your speech is convincing (Floyd, 2017) If a source is not credible, the audience will not take you seriously. Your speech depends on credibility to make sure it is objective as possible. Floyd (2017) states that most credible sources have statistics within them. Statistics make the source more objective which enhances credibility.

There are many ways credibility could be applied to any real world situation. One way it could be used in a real world situation is when you have to give a presentation to a group of people about STDs. One would want to ensure the information that they were using was credible because no one wants untrustworthy sources, especially when it comes to STDs. You want factual information for this subject, especially statistics, so everyone has an idea of how prevalent STDs are in today’s society. Credibility enhances your speech and supporting ideas. It would be unethical to use information that is not objective.

The second concept that I will discuss is plagiarism. Plagiarism is the most common form of intellectual theft (Floyd, 2017). Plagiarism happens when one cites information without giving credit to the source it came from (Floyd, 2017). Plagiarism is unfair to the person who wrote the information. Taking credit for someone else’s ideas and using it as your own can actually be a serious offense (Floyd, 2017). If one is not sure if they are plagiarizing, they should always use a citation to ensure that plagiarism is not committed. When in doubt; cite that source, which in return, makes your speech credible.

Plagiarism can happen in several real world or hypothetical situations. I would like to discuss how it can get you kicked out of college. Colleges and universities around the world all have some type of academic dishonesty policies. These policies consist of plagiarism. Say a student was writing a paper for one of their courses and did not give credit to the sources they retrieved. The information they used was not common knowledge, therefore it was considered to be plagiarism. If plagiarism was committed, the professor would have the discretion to give a zero or report it to the university’s academic conduct board. Usually most professors would give a zero for the first offense. If the student plagiarizes a second time, the professor will report it to the university. The university then would expel you from the course and/or the university, which results in receiving a failing grade in the course. If you were to be expelled from the university from plagiarism, you would not be able to return to college and your dreams of becoming whatever you want to be will expire.

In conclusion, organizing and finding support for your speech is crucial to succeeding and convincing your audience about your topic. The first concept that was discussed was credibility and how it enhances your speech and makes your speech more convincing and objective. It was applied critically by discussing how a speech on STDs needs to have information that is reliable. The second concept that was touched on was about intellectual theft, in regard to plagiarism. Plagiarizing can cause a plethora of problems. It is unethical to use information without giving credit where credit is due. This concept was applied to a real world situation in regards to being expelled from the class or university. Overall one should always make sure to be aware when organizing and finding information for their speech.

Reference:

Floyd, K. (2017). Organizing and Finding Support for Your Speech. Communication Matters

(3rd ed.). (pp. 315-342). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.