In this lecture Professor Michael Drout introduces rhetoric through the Speech-Act Theory outlined in John L. Austin's influential work How to Do Things With Words in which Austin posits the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary speech acts. Professor Drout provides examples of how these speech acts are used in everyday life to influence reality. He also shows how people misuse these speech acts to get what they want such as when politicians make promises about things they don't have any control over. It's an introduction to the world of rhetoric.