The 6Ws (and 1H) is a
tool that you can use to breakdown your questions or assignment. You use it to
identify the various aspects of your question.
The 6Ws and 1H are:
- What? – what is the main topic of the question
- Where? – is the question located in a specific setting? This could be a healthcare setting such as primary care or an acute care setting; or it may be a geographical location
- Who? – who is the question talking about. This may be a particular patient group defined by their condition, or defined by their characteristics such as age or gender etc. It might also include a particular group of healthcare professions
- When? – when or at what time dos the question relate to? For example do you need to look for up-to-date current information or have a historical perspective? It could also relate to a specific step in a process, for example a step in the patient journey
- Which? – which might help you to decide on a list of things to identify, compare or look at
- Why? – this question will help you to identify why something is occurring, what is the purpose or why it is important
- How? – you can use this question to identify how something is completed or done
This tool might be
particularly helpful if you are trying to breakdown an assignment question and
need to identify all the elements. However note that you may not need something
for all sections.
Once you have done this
you can start to identify all the keywords from the question that you will need
to perform your information search.
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| 7 coloured buttons representing the 6Ws and 1H |
You can learn more about
how to breakdown your question by completing our etutorial Identify Your Question. If you would like to practice using
the 6Ws tool you can try our Using the 6Ws Quiz.
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