1. Here’s how I began:

2. Authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S. Lewis and William Deresiewicz all talk about how friendship changed over time. Looking at the conversation they have about this topic, I believe that friendship is constantly in turmoil because it means something different to everyone.

3. Authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S. Lewis and William Deresiewicz provide insight into the way life was during the 1500’s, 1960’s and 2010. Looking at the conversation they have about this topic, it becomes clear that friendship is constantly in turmoil because it means something different to everyone.

4. Authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S. Lewis and William Deresiewicz provide insight into the way life was during the 1500’s, 1960’s and 2010. Looking at the conversation they have about this topic, it becomes clear that friendship is constantly in turmoil due to the role friendship plays in people’s lives.

5. Well, I want to say that the “role of friendship in people’s lives” is what causes the definition of friendship to be constantly in turmoil. So in order to explore this idea, I need to draw on various authors to see what they reveal about the role of friendship in people’s lives. Maybe I should reverse the order of my claim to reveal this thought process …

6. Friendship is constantly in turmoil due to the role friendship plays in people’s lives. Authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S. Lewis and William Deresiewicz provide insight into the way life was during the 1500’s, 1960’s and 2010. Their texts will allow me to say my thoughts on the role of friendship. But, I don’t want to just say the obvious thoughts about friendship: “it’s important” or “it’s special”

7. So maybe I want to talk about how useful people see friendship in different time periods, and that their perspective on how useful it is (or the role it plays) is more what I think my draft examines. The usefulness and role that friendship plays in people’s lives determines the way in which the definition of friendship will be affected.

8. Ok, that sounds good. Now what can I do with the authors to help me out here? By focusing on friendship’s utility, authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S Lewis and William Deresiewicz aid in the establishment of the role of friendship in the 1500’s, 1960‘s and 2010.

9. The usefulness and role that friendship plays in people’s lives determines the way in which the definition of friendship will be affected. By focusing on friendship’s utility, authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S Lewis and William Deresiewicz will aid in the establishment of the role of friendship in the 1500’s, 1960‘s and 2010.

10. I am thinking about how useful friendship is to people in the future, but I also need to now think about modern developments or trends that will help me establish what role friendship will play for people in the future. I found two sources for my post-draft One on Facebook One on the economic recession

11. The usefulness and role that friendship plays in people’s lives determines the way in which the definition of friendship is affected. By focusing on friendship’s utility, authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S Lewis and William Deresiewicz aid in the establishment of the role of friendship in the 1500’s, 1960‘s and 2010. This trajectory will allow me to explore the future impact of Facebook on the usefulness of friendship.

12. I need to make an argument that Facebook affects the role friendship plays in people’s lives. But I don’t really have an argument about that because I think Facebook really just changes the way people communicate and isn’t saying much about how it changes the way the role of friendship is valued. Maybe I can try the economic recession out instead.

13. The usefulness and role that friendship plays in people’s lives determines the way in which the definition of friendship will be affected. By focusing on friendship’s utility, authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S Lewis and William Deresiewicz will aid in the establishment of the role of friendship in the 1500’s, 1960‘s and 2010. The current economic recession will reduce the role and usefulness of friendship; therefore, future friendships will be negatively affected due to … wait, due to what?

14. I need to think about how, exactly, the recession is affecting the role of friendship. What is the recession causing people to do differently: Maybe they aren’t going to the mall with their friends? Maybe they aren’t dorming on campus? Maybe they aren’t going to college at all? Maybe they are getting jobs out of high school? Maybe they are unemployed and can’t find jobs?

15. When I do some more research, I find out that the economic recession caused a lot of people to commute to state schools rather than travel away to dorm on other campuses. I think this might be useful to me, so I need to rewrite my claim to figure out how I can make an argument about this:

16. The usefulness and role that friendship plays in people’s lives determines the way in which the definition of friendship is affected. By focusing on friendship’s utility, authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S Lewis and William Deresiewicz aid in the establishment of the role of friendship in the 1500’s, 1960‘s and 2010. In order to project the future trajectory of friendship, an exploration on the affect of the current economic recession will reveal the way in which collegiate decisions alter the role of friendship in the future generation.

17. Here’s what my paper needs to do, overall, to argue for this complex claim: FIRST: Highlight the places in my draft that give the reader a grounded trajectory of the way the role of friendship shifted from the 1500’s to the 1960’s to 2010 due to specific trends or developments. That way, I can continue exploring the shifts and it leads me into a discussion of the current trend affecting the future.

18. SECOND: I need to explore the economic recession. My logic needs to sound like this: Recession -> less money/more focus on saving - > less money means college decisions change -> one change is the choice to not dorm -> this might mean people are making the choice to commute and stay local -> if people are local, they can strengthen their current friendships rather than creating new ones -> therefore, the role of friendship will be valuable because people close by can help each other through difficult times (and I can use student anecdotes here, too!) So maybe my focus is actually on the role of location.

19. The usefulness and role that friendship plays in people’s lives determines the way in which the definition of friendship is affected. By focusing on friendship’s utility, authors Michel de Montaigne, C.S Lewis and William Deresiewicz aid in the establishment of the role of friendship in the 1500’s, 1960‘s and 2010. In order to project the future trajectory of friendship, an exploration on the affect of the current economic recession on collegiate decisions will reveal the way location choices alter the role of friendship in the future generation.