The Five W's: How Reporters Tell a Whole Story
Pretend a giant oak tree fell across Main Street last night. If a reporter just wrote "A tree fell," you would have a hundred questions! Where? When? Was anyone hurt? A good news story answers your questions before you even ask them. Reporters do this with a trick called the Five W's: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. (Some add an H for How.) Answer all five, and you have told the whole story.
What You'll Learn
- The Five W's that every news story should answer - Why the most important facts go at the very top (the lead) - The difference between a fact and an opinion - How to write your own short, clear news report
Meet the Five W's
The Lead: Most Important First
The Lead: Most Important First
News writing flips the way you tell a bedtime story. Instead of saving the exciting part for the end, reporters put the MOST important facts in the very first sentence, called the lead (say it like "leed"). Why? Because busy readers might only read one line. This shape is called the inverted pyramid: the biggest, most important facts sit at the wide top, and smaller details come lower down. If you had to cut the story short, you would chop from the bottom.
A fact can be checked and proven true, like "The tree was 40 feet tall." An opinion is what someone feels, like "The tree was beautiful." News reporters report facts and leave opinions out, or they quote a person saying it.
Fact or Opinion?
Learning to spot the difference makes you a sharp reporter AND a smart reader. Fact: "Firefighters arrived at 9 p.m." You can check the time. Opinion: "Firefighters are the bravest people ever." That is a feeling, not something you can prove. Good journalists can share opinions, but only inside quotation marks, showing exactly who said them.
Match each part of the tree story to the correct W question.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
Why do reporters put the most important facts in the very first sentence (the lead)?
Which of these sentences is a FACT that belongs in a news report?
Be a Cub Reporter
1) Pick a real event you saw this week (a game, a school assembly, a family dinner, a rainstorm). 2) On scrap paper, answer all Five W's: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. 3) Write a lead sentence that packs in the most important facts. 4) Add 2 or 3 more sentences with smaller details, biggest to smallest (the inverted pyramid). 5) Underline any word that is an opinion and either cut it or turn it into a quote from a real person. 6) Give your report a short, clear headline of 6 words or fewer, then read it aloud to your class or family.
Flashcards — click each card to reveal the answer
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