Question

What is a key question?

Answer 1

Hint: The five W’s and one H are questions that are deemed to be essential in the collection of knowledge. They are what, when, who, why, where and how. In journalism, reporting and inquiries by the police, the 5 Ws are also listed.

Complete answer:
A key question is a form of words addressed to a person in order to elicit information or evoke a response; interrogative sentence.
It is a formula to get the whole truth about a problem. According to the Five W’s principle, a document can only be addressed completely, if the answers to these questions start with an interrogative word.

i) Who is this about?
Who is used to ask about the person?
ii) What happened that day?
What is used to ask for the information?
iii) When did this situation take place?
When is used to ask for the time of the incident/event?
iv) Where did this situation take place?
Where is used to ask for the location?
v) Why did that happen?
Why is used to ask for the reason?
vi) How did this happen?
How is used to ask or explain the process?

There are some others such as Whom, Whose, How much etc.
Each question should have a truthful answer — facts and evidence necessary is used for a full report. Note that one of these questions can be answered with a yes or no.

Note:
i) In English there are two main types of questions - Closed and open questions.
ii) The answer to a closed question is always yes or no.
- Do you eat ice cream? Yes or no.
iii) The answer to an open question depends upon the person from whom it is being asked.
- Where does one decide to choose a vacation?