ToK ESSAY

Read the instructions, they tell you what you need to know.

“... The focus of your essay should be on knowledge questions.

Where appropriate, refer to other parts of your IB programme
and to your experiences as a knower. Always justify your
statements and provide relevant examples to illustrate your
arguments. Pay attention to the implications of your
arguments, and remember to consider what can be said
against them. If you use external sources, cite them according
to a recognized convention.
 Presentation
(important points for final submission)

- Your essay must be easy to read: double line spacing, regular font (Times
New Roman, Ariel etc.), 12pt font, normal margins
- Page numbers in a footer
- Start the essay with the title and title number
- Keep an accurate record of the final word count – you will need to enter
this when you upload your essay (but don't include it in your essay)
- Do not include a title page
- Must be anonymous: no name or session number anywhere in the essay
- No pictures should be included unless absolutely essential for your
discussion
 TK/PPF
(paperwork, paperwork)

- You must complete the TK/PPF form, which you will submit with your
final essay.
- The form is a writeable pdf that you can find on the forums.
- You should complete the form with some reflections on your progress
with the essay after each of the three “interactions with your teacher”
- Interaction 1 is the lesson when we discuss the prescribed essay title, with
some follow-up in Managebac
- Interaction 2 will take place on your TOK worksheet in Managebac,
probably sometime in November
- Interaction 3 will be my written feedback on your essay draft (which will
also take place in Managebac)
- As you can see, you will need to use Managebac, which you can start
doing as soon as you've chosen your title
 Top Tips
 Establish the relevance (to the title) of all of your discussion
 Consider the question from different perspectives...
 ...BUT, take a stance: What is your personal response to the
question in the title? Why?
 Reconcile any potential contradictions between your stance and
the counter arguments you explore (by, for example, recognising
conflicting interpretations of key terms)
 Your essay should be a clear and coherent development of your
personal response to the question
 Use real examples, that you have found or experienced
 Critically evaluate ideas
 Provide convincing arguments for all claims you make, and
references to back up any factual claims
 Other Tips
 On definitions: Avoid mechanical definitions. Instead, you
should define terms when you have a specific reason to do so,
such as when a term is open to misunderstanding, or when
choosing a particular interpretation is key to your argument. Any
definition should be accompanied by a statement of why you're
embarking on the definition.
 On concepts: You should take some time to think about all of the
concepts in the title, and engage in discussion of the most
important in your essay.
 It's very important that you take a stance, but you should also
recognise the potential weaknesses of your position.
 While it's good to recognise related questions, you won't get good
marks unless you engage in successful analysis of some of these
questions.
 Assessment instrument
 The assessment instrument recognises the
following aspects of a successful essay
 Focus on KQs, and relevance to title
 Development of KQs
 Perspectives
 Links to AOKs and/or WOKs
 Argumentation
 Use of examples
 Focus & Relevance
 Focus discussion consistently on the KQ in the title
 You need to establish the relevance of other KQs you
discuss: point out explicitly how each KQ is relevant
to the question being asked in the title
 Other key terms that often lead to useful KQ
discussion are: proof, explanation, evidence, truth,
experience, culture, belief, certainty, intuition,
technology, interpretation, values
 Development of KQs
 You need to explore KQs in enough depth. Make sure
your essay goes beyond obvious and stereotypical
comments about AoKs and WoKs, of which the
following are examples:
– Mathematical knowledge is universal and objective,
while the arts are subjective and personal.
– Sense perception can be fooled, therefore we can't
trust our senses.
– History is biased.
– There can be no ethical truth, as our values are
shaped by experience and culture.
 It can be ok to start off discussion with a
straightforward comment about a AOK/WOK, but you
should expand your analysis by asking, for example,
these questions:
– To what extent is my assertion true?
– Under what conditions is it not true?
– Why is it true under certain conditions, and why not
under others?
– What are the implications of my assertion? What does
it mean in terms of the nature of proof, evidence,
explanation, interpretation, truth etc. in this
AOK/WOK?

 Critically evaluate ideas, both your own and those of

others (even the essay title can be evaluated critically)
 Perspectives
 You need to explore counter arguments, while being aware
that this might lead to contradictions with your main
argument. Following these steps might help:
– Explain and illustrate some arguments that support your
stance
– Then consider what arguments could be made against your
stance
– Why do you favour your argument and not the counter
arguments? Is the counter argument invalid? Or is it down
to different possible interpretations of key terms? Or is your
argument only valid in certain contexts?
– Explicitly point out why you favour your argument
– Make sure you recognise any assumptions that your
argument is based on, and justify why these assumptions are
sound
 Links
 Your discussion must be linked to either AOKs or
WOKs
 It's usually best to treat no more than two or three
AOKs/WOKs in detail
 Nonetheless, passing observations or comparisons
can allow you to make links to other AOKs/WOKs
 Argumentation
 NO ASSERTION IN YOUR ESSAY (unless it is so
obviously true that no reasonable individual could
question it) CAN BE STATED WITHOUT
SUFFICIENT JUSTIFICATION.
 This justification can be either a coherent argument
that establishes your assertion, or a reference to a
recognised authority that backs it up (only good for
factual statements).
 Examples can also be used to illustrate (but not
justify) an assertion, but you need to explicitly point
out how your example does this (here you can also
justify your assertion), don't just assume it's obvious.
 The use of an appropriately tentative language is
important in terms of this and (the next) criterion.
The following are examples:
– It seems reasonable to assume that...
– It would be hard to argue that...
– One might conclude from this that...
– While there are exceptions, it is generally the case
that...
– Let us consider the possibility that...

If can be a very useful term that allows you to do all

sorts of useful things with your arguments

Some words should be treated with caution, such as:

only, always, never, obviously, of course
 Use of Examples
 Use original examples – think about the KQs in detail
yourself and come to your own conclusions about
how to illustrate them with examples.
 Avoid obvious examples, e.g. the flat earth, 1+1=2, the
geo/heliocentric universe
 Avoid hypothetical examples. Use real and specific
examples instead of generalisations.
 Make sure you develop the example: you explain how
the example illustrates the point you're making
 When do I need to provide
sources?
There are two situations in which you need to provide a
source:
a) You're citing a fact that is not considered part of general
knowledge, about which the reader could reasonably ask, "Is that
really true?” In this case, you're backing up your factual claim
with proof that it is correct.

b) You're quoting, or paraphrasing, the idea(s) of another person.

In this case, you're acknowledging that the idea is not your own,
and thereby maintaining your academic honesty. Strictly
speaking, you should do this even in the case of, for example,
quoting a fellow student from a classroom discussion.