Who, What, When Where, Why and How?

No, it’s not the name of a law firm, it’s the fundamentals of good journalism.  If you plan on writing any thype of journalistic article, you’ll need these questions need to be answered.  It’s a simple formula that has worked in journalism for a very, very long time, but that some reporters, especially on the Internet, seem to have forgotten.

Let me break the “Five W’s and an H” down for you.

Who: Who is the article about?  Is it a person, an institution, a government body?

What: What event are you covering?  What makes this newsworthy? What is the point of this article?

When: When did this event take place, or when will it take place? (In the old days of news, this would have been the dateline.) Without this little piece of information, the story is useless to the reader.
Where: Where did the event take place, or where will it take place?  Obviously, if you are reporting something happening in Hoboken New Jersey, it probably won’t have a lot of impact on someone in San Diego California, but may have significant impact on someone in New York.

Why: Why did this happen, or why is it taking place?  Knowing that it is happening loses a lot if it’s importance if you don’t know why it is happening.

How:  How did this event or these events take place?  How did they play out?  How was a problem resolved?

As you can see, these are pretty straightforward guidelines.  In journalism all of these questions should be answered as close to the beginning of the article as possible and it is recommended that they are answered in the first two paragraphs.

I’ll let you mull this over for a bit and come back later today with an example of a short article written in this format.  Until then,

Happy Writing!

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