The principle underlying the maxim
is that each question should elicit a factual answer
— facts that it is necessary to include
for a report to be considered complete.
Importantly, none of these questions can be answered
with a simple "yes" or "no".
n the context of the "news style" for newspaper reporting,
the Five W's are types of facts that should be contained in the "lead"
(sometimes spelled lede to avoid confusion
with the typographical term "leading" or similarly spelled words),
or first two or three paragraphs of the story,
after which more expository writing is allowed.