I honestly believe that journaling is the best way. Maybe not for everyone, but for me that is what works best. I think it's easier to pre-write using the journal format because it gives me a much more detailed guide to follow. I also believe that if you write everything down in the journal format well enough and include enough information you can very well have the majority of your work done. However if you use the journal method and don't include enough information it may make things even harder for you because you won't have as much information to follow. Now I never said that I think listing is a bad method, but I believe that everything is subjective to anyone so for me to say what is bad would be an invalid point because what doesn't work for me may work for someone else. Even though I prefer the journal method, I believe that the listing method has some very valuable advantages. It could shorten the time it takes to format whatever you are writing because you can just use key points and build off of those to receive the grand vision for your final work. Anyways I really don't think their is a best way, I only used the term "best" in the opening sentence to simply humor Mr. Pitcher in his quest to discover what everyone in the class believes is the best. Anyone who says something is the best is sadly mislead because in all reality the best is never really the best, it is only an opinion for the feeble minded.