When reporters
start writing a news story, they look for the answers to five
simple questions -- known as "The Five W's". The answers
to those questions are the basis for every story.
- Who?
- Who is involved? Who did what? To who? Who is affected?
- What?
- What happened?
- When?
- When did it happen? In what order did events take place?
- Where?
- Where did this happen? Did the location change?
- Why?
- Why did it happen? What caused it?
The reporter
will often try to include all or most of the answers in the first
line or paragraph of the news story. That opening section is
often called "the
lede"
or the "the
lead".
The opening lines give the readers a good idea of what happened
as soon as they start reading the story.
Here are
several activities you can try in the classroom, using the Five
W's:
- Make copies
of a news story from your local paper. Talk about what's going
on in the story with the class. Then, ask your students to find
each of the five Ws in the story. They can highlight or circle
the relevant sections of the story or write them down on the
worksheet below.
- Once your
students are familiar with the Five W's, try this exercise. Give
half the class a copy of one news story and another story to
the other group of students.
- Ask them
to identify the who, where, when, what, and why of the story
and write them down on the worksheet below. Have the students
switch those lists with someone on the other side of the class.
- Invite the
students to write the opening lines of a story, using the information
listed on the sheet they received from their classmate.
- Once everyone
is finished, compare them to the original stories and those of
their classmates. Did everyone come up with similar stories?
Activity
3 Worksheet
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Find
the five W's!
Exercise 1
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Who? |
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What? |
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When? |
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Where? |
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Why? |
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Exercise 2
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Who? |
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What? |
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When? |
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Where? |
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Why? |
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Write your
opening lines for the story.
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