This article describes Sondra Perl's retrospective review of the composing processes of unskilled college writers and whether her assumptions and values in the designing of research projects have changed over her long teaching career. She uses her college dissertation "Five Writers Writing" as the basis to reflect on the authors and documents that shaped her views. Perl concludes: while there are many things she would now do differently when designing research projects, there are also many things that would remain the same; she endeavors to stay true to what matters--developing a writer's voice; and in looking back, she remembers the main case study of her dissertation, the five writers, who have accompanied her as she learned the craft of research.