Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Rescue: Five W's

Quite a few of you never said what time the collapse took place. Even more of you never said when the boy was pulled out of the tunnel, and at what time the boy died.

Time often matters as one of the five W's. But in this case, it's especially important to the telling of the story.

Time tells you how difficult it would have been for the boy to be okay after being buried for so long. Time tells you how difficult it was to dig out the boy, in that it took so long.

In this case, specific times are important bits of data that help show teh reader what happened, and not just leave them being told by you.

You say it was a difficult rescue. The times help readers see that.

In every story you write, try to determine which data sets help explain the story and show readers what they need to see in terms of evidence supporting your overall angle.

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