5 Ws

The Five Ws, Five Ws and One H, 5W1H, or Six Ws are questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering or problem solving. They are often mentioned in journalism (cf. news style), research, and police investigations. They constitute a formula for getting the complete story on a subject. According to the principle of the Five Ws, a report can only be considered complete if it answers these questions starting with an interrogative word:

Some authors add a sixth question, “how”, to the list, though "how" can also be covered by "what", "when", or "where":

Each question should have a factual answer — facts necessary to include for a report to be considered complete. Importantly, none of these questions can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".

In the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland), the Five Ws are used in Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 lessons.

A standard series of questions has been a way of formulating or analyzing rhetorical questions since classical antiquity.

The rhetor Hermagoras of Temnos, as quoted in pseudo-Augustine's De Rhetorica defined seven "circumstances" (μόρια περιστάσεως 'elements of circumstance') as the loci of an issue:

Cicero had a similar concept of circumstances, but though Thomas Aquinas attributes the questions to Cicero, they do not appear in his writings. Similarly, Quintilian discussed loci argumentorum, but did not put them in the form of questions.

Victorinus explained Cicero's system of circumstances by putting them into correspondence with Hermagoras's questions:

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