Summary Leads

The 5W’s and H

News Writing

WhoWhatWhenWhereWhy

Swimming was prohibited at Sunny Isles
Beach Monday after a dangerous amount of
bacteria was found in the water last week.
Miami-Dade County health officials declared
the Atlantic Ocean off limits because
ingesting the water can make people,
particularly children, sick.

Who did what?When did
they do it?

Where did it happen?
How did it happen?
Why did they do it?

If you answer these questions completely,
you will have a well-reported news story.

The basic news lead

A 16-year-old was • Who: A 16-year-old
arrested in the
• What: Was arrested
robbery and beating
death of an 88-year- • When: ??
old veteran from
Spokane, Wash., • Where: Spokane,
who survived being Wash.

wounded in World • Why: robbing and
War II. beating an 88-year-
old veteran to death

• How: ??

The second paragraph

A second male teen • Who: a second teen
was still being sought
in the murder of • What: being sought
Delbert "Shorty"
Belton, a retired • When: Wednesday
aluminum company
worker who was • Where: in the
brutally attacked in parking lot of
the parking lot of his Delbert “Shorty”
lodge Wednesday Belton’s lodge
night and died the
following morning. • Why: murder

• How: a brutal attack

The third paragraph

“These are two • This is an
individuals who for emphasis

whatever reason went paragraph. It
out on a given night to uses a quote to
rob someone,” introduce the
Spokane Police Chief emotion of the
Frank Straub said. event.

“They robbed him, they
beat him and they killed
him.”

The fourth paragraph

Charges of first- • Additional information
degree murder and is provided in
first-degree robbery descending order of
were pending against importance. This is
the suspect in called the “inverted
custody. Straub said pyramid” style of
police were closing in news writing.
on the second and
urged him to
surrender.

The follow-up story

Staff Sgt. Robert • Who: A military jury
Bales, who pleaded
guilty to slaughtering • What: decided on life
16 Afghan civilians in prison
inside their homes,
will spend the rest of • When: Friday
his life in prison, a
military jury decided • Where: ???
on Friday.
• Why: Sgt. Bales
pleaded guilty to
slaughtering Afghan
civilians

• How: ? (deliberations)

What’s most important?

• Start with the most important thing in the
story.

• Usually that’s the WHO or the WHAT.
• Rarely – almost never – is it the WHERE or

the WHEN.
• Sometimes, particularly in follow-up

stories, the WHY or the HOW may be the
most important way to start.

Please don’t start like this:

At 1:15 p.m. Wednesday in the gym at Sun
Valley Vista High School in Westchester,
Ariz., five students were seriously injured
when a jump shot by Brandon McGee
shattered the backboard, causing glass to
rain down on the unsuspecting teens.

How many things can you find wrong
with this lead?

How about this instead?

Five students were hurt when star
basketball player Brandon McGee slammed
the backboard during fifth period on
Wednesday, causing it to shatter before the
students could move out of the way.

Find some tweets

Twitter teasers often use the 5W’s
effectively.

• Use Twitter to follow several news
organizations such as local media, CNN,
The New York Times, NBC News, ABC
News, Al-Jazeera, Huffington Post.
• Choose three tweets from news
organizations about today’s news that you
think use the 5W’s effectively.

Your assignment

• Write the three tweets you chose.
• For each one, complete this list:

• Who:
• What:
• Why:
• When:
• Where:
• How:

• Answer: How many of the 5W’s and H did
the tweets contain? Which of the 5W’s
came first most often?