It does not take a lot of resources, just a lot of thought and research, to do a good job covering such issues. Good examples of the kind of excellent reporting that can be done on a shoestring are available in the archives of the Web site of Environment Hawaii . Giving students an outlet for writing they have done in or out of class is good for students because the chance of a schoolwide audience adds excitement to assignments. In developing a story, reporters learn how to tell what information is missing and how the pieces of the article fit together. That requires a high level of abstract thinking.
Journalists learn to write with coherence and clarity, and deadlines teach discipline.
All that is a wonderful confidence-builder. A personal story may illustrate the point. When Steven Knowlton, one of the authors of this book, sat down to write a doctoral dissertation, the project looked daunting, overwhelming, terrifying. About 100,000 words, more or less. That's a hundred days of a thousand words per day - about as much as two or three little newspaper articles, or one pretty long one.