Printable Graphic Organizer: 5 W's
5 Ws Organizer
The 5Ws graphic organizer helps a writer organize information
around an event. When you need to know who, what, when,
where, and why, this is the organizer to put the information in
order.
The 5 Ws organizer can work with many writing styles but is
especially useful when writing a journalism piece, a current event
article, or a historical fiction or historical nonfiction piece (such
as a short story, a reflection, or an article). The 5 Ws is also
useful with any type of writing in the social sciences: reports or
articles in history, psychology, geography, and politics.
What is a graphic organizer?
A graphic organizer is a visual tool that writers use when
planning a piece of writing. There are many styles of graphic
organizers such as: outline, 5Ws, Venn diagram, 3 column notes,
visual cluster, inverted triangle, KWL (know, want to know, learn),
plot diagram, and there are many more.
Different graphic organizers tend to appeal to different writers.
For example, some writers use only the traditional outline for all
of their planning needs, while others will switch between
organizers depending on the writing style.
How can writers use graphic organizers?
Writers use graphic organizers in the planning stage of the
writing process, which is just after the brainstorming stage. Take
the valuable information from the brainstorming and add it to
the graphic organizer. This process allows writers to keep their
important information which can be used in writing the first
draft.