HIERARCHY OF FACTS METHOD – PART TWO

By Earl Victor L. Rosero

If you are unable to fit the “Who, What, How, Why, Where, When, Source/Attribution” data sequence into one
sentence that is at most 35 words long, then you may break down the long sentence into two or three sentences.

A lead can be made of one to three sentences although the preferred way is just one sentence for
conciseness.

For the two-sentence lead, write the first sentence with the “Who, What, How, Why, Source/Attribution”
information in sequence. The sentence will therefore have the remaining “Where, When” information.

For the three-sentence lead, start with “Who, What, Source/Atribution” in the first sentence, then for the second
sentence the “How, Why”, and then “When, Where” in the third and last sentence.

Following the order of appearance of the lead information, you then proceed to write the body of the news article
as explained in Part One of this news writing guide.

Now, if the source material or news material or data sheet is a speech or has lots of quotes, I suggest that you
follow the “Who, What, So What” outline or sequence in a two-sentence format.

For example:

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a televised statement on Wednesday that pieces of debris
found on Reunion Island were those of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that vanished on March 8, 2014.

"It is my hope that this confirmation, however tragic and painful, will at least bring certainty to the
families and loved ones of the 239 people onboard MH370," PM Razak said.

The first sentence has the Who and the What while the second sentence has the So What using a direct quote
with proper attribution.

Following the order of appearance of the lead information, you then proceed to write the body of the news article
starting with the third paragraph.

The body of the article will thus have three parts:

1) WHO – focus on what the Who had done recently or even in the more distant past that has direct
relevance to what has just happened.
2) WHAT – focus on details of the new information just revealed and the expected course of events that
could likely happen in the days or weeks ahead.
3) SO WHAT – focus on the impact of the news now, on the people affected, and on what could happen
soon.

Remember, the outline or sequence of information presented in your lead should dictate how the body
shall be structured and organized.