The ethical use of information is essential. It is something you learn in school in order to practice it in your everyday life. In this course, you will need to find and use information from various sources, and incorporate it into your speeches. Citing the information gives credibility to what you say and it also helps you avoid plagiarism.
Unless your speech is all about you, your audience will want to know where you got your information. Using good information from credible sources makes your speech more compelling, and people will be more likely to listen to you and take you seriously. But even if you are using good, credible information, your audience won't know this unless you tell them. Citing your sources in your speech is how your audience knows from where your information originates.
Plagiarism really is an issue, and people take it seriously. There are numerous examples of high profile people getting in hot water over plagiarism in speeches. If you use information or ideas that are not your own or general knowledge, you need to provide citations in order to avoid committing plagiarism.
The following video, made by Krista Price, an educator with 15+ years' experience teaching speech and theatre, discusses research and citation for speeches. It gives some good examples of how NOT to cite, with reasons for each.
Krista Price. KP's Speech Class - Research & Citing Sources (Part I). YouTube.
When giving a speech, you need to let your audience know who deserves credit for information you use, as well as where you found the information. In many cases, you may also need to include information about the original source that explains why it is a credible source. An author's name alone may not mean anything to your audience, so information about why the author is reputable may be necessary. The citation will also depend on the type of source you are using.
The following video, from The Public Speaking Project, discusses not only why you need to cite, but it also gives examples of how to cite various sources within the text of your speech.
The Public Speaking Project. Citing Sources in Your Speech.mp4. YouTube.