62 ChaPTER 4 StUdy gUide
Study guide: review and apply
Meet Your Objectives
4.1 Explain the relationships among ethics, free speech, and credibility.
In the United States, citizens have the right to speak freely, but that right comes
with the responsibility to speak ethically. Speaking ethically allows your audi-
ence to trust you. Being trustworthy is an important part of being credible, or
believable.
key terms
Free speech
Ethics
Credibility4.2 Explain how free speech has been both challenged and defended
throughout U.S. history.
Although the U.S. Congress and courts have occasionally limited the constitu-
tional right to free speech, more often they have protected and broadened its
application. Social media offer a new context for twenty-first-century challenges
to free speech.
key terms
First Amendment
Speech act4.3 List and explain five criteria for ethical public speaking.
An ethical public speaker should have a clear, responsible goal; use sound evi-
dence and reasoning; be sensitive to and tolerant of differences; be honest; and
take appropriate steps to avoid plagiarism. Avoid plagiarizing by doing your
own work and acknowledging—orally, in writing, or both—the sources for any
quotations, ideas, statistics, or visual materials you use in a speech.
key terms
Ethical speech
Accommodation
Plagiarizing
Patchwriting
Oral citation
Written citation