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Who what when where why & how

created by Zach

(thing) by Zach (6.8 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Sat Dec 16 2000 at 13:25:31

The six predominant question words in the english language. These six words are used by journalists. Ideally every article or definition or what have you does for its given subject matter. In fact, a good opening sentence or paragraph for any documentation should at least answer who, what, where and when. Then the how and why, which take longer to explain, would make up the bulk of the given article.

For example:
"The president formally addressed the people of the United States of America from his Oval Office in the White House early last Tuesday to discuss the recent undisputable evidence suggesting the actual end of the world."

Who's the who? The president's a who. He addressed the country, which infers all the whos in America. What's the what? A formal address or speech. Indisputable evidence. The End of the World. When's the when? The example above gives "early last Tuesday" as the time. Perhaps it could have been more specific. Where's the where? The president's Oval Office in the White House. From there he was speaking to people living in the USA. Whys the why and Hows the how? That would go on into the further detail of the given piece. How long was the speech? Why did he need to give it? Why is the world going to end? How will it end? How did they find out?

Also, answers to the other words would be repeated incessantly in the article. Who found out about this? What can the people do about it? When will the End of the World happen? Where? These six words offer focus and order to any writer. It's the easiest and roughest outline one can conjure in their mind for accumulating and organizing data and ideas. It's also a good rule of thumb to use when writing nodes for E2.


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