One often-neglected prewriting technique is journaling. Journaling is not a five-minute exercise like freewriting or brainstorming, but is a long-term writing technique that generates long-term benefits like awareness of one's own writing process and the ability to look back and appreciate how much progress has been made for a particular writing project. Kiara has been journaling throughout her research paper process, and when she looked back on her entries, she was surprised to see how her own attitudes towards her research topic of the stay-at-home-dad has developed and changed over the course of the semester. In addition, Kiara was able to assess areas where she got hung up in the writing process, like topic exploration, and areas where she should have spent more time, like researching. Finally, Kiara could see how her writing skills improved through her journaling. Check out "10 Ways Journaling Makes You a Better Writer" for more information on how it helps.