What are the Five Ws and One H? They are Who, What, Why, When, Where and How. Why are the Five Ws and One H important? News story isn’t complete until the answers for all six questions are found.
For example, if the reporter wishes to cover a story about a local sports team entering a competition he needs to answer these questions:
Who is the team? Who is the coach? Who are the prominent players? Who are the supporters?
What sport do they play? What is the competition?
Where is the competition? Where the team is normally based?
When is the competition? How long have they been preparing? Are there any other important time factors?
Why are they entering this particular competition? If it's relevant, why does the team exist at all?
How are they going to enter the competition? Do they need to fundraise? How much training and preparation is required? What will they need to do to win?
The practice nowadays is to write a lead of not more than 30 words. The former International News services style book instructed its staff to write the lead in three lines or less. Any good reporter can tell that the news can be told effectively within these set limits.
But what exactly is expected of a good lead or intro? The following general points are almost universal:
The intro should be appropriate for the story.
The intro should make the reader want to read the rest of the story.
The intro should be kept short whenever possible.
The intro should normally be based on the key point of the story.
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