This section of my portfolio is intended to demonstrate research skills, the ethical and agreeable application of evidence, and evidence synthesis and reach a logical conclusion. Both rhetoric and professional writing require the adept use of evidence to develop credibility, and I know that I could not honestly claim to have gained a complete PWR education without possessing this critical skill myself. I believe that the use of evidence is a multifaceted skill. Consequently, I have selected pieces that feature different modes in which I have learned to work with evidence, as well as my ability to adapt my management of evidence to suit the discipline that I am writing in.

"AP Final Term Paper" is an exhibition of my ability to employ ambiguous evidence to reach a firm conclusion. This is a valuable addition to my portfolio because part of being a trial attorney is working with all of the same rhetorical resources as one's opponent, but organize them in a way that argues for the opposite conclusion. Aligning rhetoric and authorial integrity isn't always easy, but doing so is of the utmost importance in both professional and personal spheres. I took this assignment as an opportunity to practice reading a set collection of facts that entertains multiple conclusions, and in justifying the preference of one of those conclusions based on the relationship between individual pieces of evidence and the literary whole that they come from. 

"NA Lit Paper 2" is a literary exegesis that I wrote for a class on native american literature that I took in my junior year. The piece is a demonstration of my ability to incorporate evidence that most scholars would have overlooked, but that I argue play an essential role in shaping the final conclusion, or that informs how other evidence should be regarded. Professional Writing and Rhetoric has taught me that contexts of communication problem solving should always be appreciated at the most detailed and intricate level. I found in writing this assignment that by offering more attention to detail than the scholars that I was responding to, I was able to piece together a more complete representation of the subject being studied, and therefore a more reliable interpretation of that subject.