More Ledes: The 5 W's

You may have heard of the 5 W's -- who, what, when, where, why and a non-w: how -- that are central to good journalism. It's important that we identify the most critical of those W's, and include them in our ledes.

Let's look at one lede:


Scott Forsythe, 22, was killed en route on his way to his wedding. Forsythe lost control of his car trying to avoid a dog that walked in the middle of the street. 


Now, let's identify the W's

Who = Scott Forsythe, 22
What = he died while on his way to the wedding
Why = lost control of his car trying to avoid a dog
Where = the middle of the street, but we don't say which one
When = ????
How = see what, why

So, we're missing two of the W's (one is totally off the radar, and the other is unclear). When was critical, at least in its most basic form, such as saying, today. (You could include a specific time later in the story). News is something new, so the date would indicate the newness.

Where is also pretty important. Something that happens near where I live and work is probably a bigger deal than something faraway. So an approximate placement (e.g., along Kirkmann Road) would help, as opposed to just saying the middle of the street, which can be anywhere.

Let's add those in the lede (and merge the sentences into one):

Scott Forsythe, 22, was killed en route to his wedding today after losing control of his car trying to avoid a dog that walked in the middle of Kirkmann Road.

Now, our bases are covered. And still at 30 words, and one sentence!