The Journalists' Formula: 5W + 1H
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
--Rudyard Kipling, Just-So Stories, 1902
The 5W + 1H are questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering or problem solving. They are often mentioned in journalism, scholarly research, and military reconnaissance and police investigations.
5W + 1H constitute a formula for getting the complete story on a subject. A report can only be considered complete if it answers these questions:
Each question should have a factual answer communicated as a complete sentence.
None of these questions can be satisfactorily answered with a simple "yes" or "no."
Ideally, the answers will be expressed in such a way that the reader or listener does not need to know what the original question was in order to understand the answer. One-word responses, short phrases, or sentence fragments do not meet the needs of the audience, and will often fail to activate the investigator's own memory between taking notes and later review.
5W + 1H constitute a formula for getting the complete story on a subject. A report can only be considered complete if it answers these questions:
- Who was involved?
- What happened?
- When did it take place?
- Where did it take place?
- Why did that happen?
- How did it happen?
Each question should have a factual answer communicated as a complete sentence.
None of these questions can be satisfactorily answered with a simple "yes" or "no."
Ideally, the answers will be expressed in such a way that the reader or listener does not need to know what the original question was in order to understand the answer. One-word responses, short phrases, or sentence fragments do not meet the needs of the audience, and will often fail to activate the investigator's own memory between taking notes and later review.
Inventio
"Invention" or "Discovery"
Hermagoras of Temnos defined seven "circumstances" (μόρια περιστάσεως 'elements of circumstance') in the first century BCE (Before the Common Era):
Quis, quid, quando, ubi, cur, quem ad modum, quibus adminiculis.
(Who, what, when, where, why, in what way, by what means)
(Who, what, when, where, why, in what way, by what means)
Gaius Marius Victorinus of Africa included Hermagoas's Inventio in his discussion of public rhetoric and the making of public policies, laws, and legal decisions in the 4th century CE:
Persona: Person
Factum: The Object
Causa: Cause
Locus: Location
Tempus: Time
Modus: Mode or Method
Facultas: Capacity or Ability
Opinio: Opinion
Natura Noster: Our Nature
Vulgi Mos: The Will of the People
Opinio Iudicum: The Opinion of the Judges