TOK Essay

Helpful Resources

• Student Exemplars

• TOK Today – breaking down different the TOK essay prompts

• Get an A in TOK – videos breaking down some of the recent titles

• TheoryofKnowledge.net - group of videos that outlines different aspects of the essay

• Youtube - Legendary IB TOK Teacher breaks down TOK Essay Introductions

• Youtube (old curriculum) - (2021 May) How to get an A for your TOK Essay in 4 hours?

• Youtube (old curriculum) - TOK Essay Demystified THE INTRODUCTION 10/10 Perfect Score Essay Analysis (Part 1 of 3)

Explaination of the key terms of the Rubric (resources.ig.org)

• “A sustained focus on the title” 

  • The TOK essay is an exploration of the chosen title, so ensuring that the essay is tightly focused on the title is crucial. If this doesn’t happen, the essay will be seen to lack relevance and will only achieve low marks.

  • Common weaknesses seen in TOK essays:

    • They fail to address the title, or that they begin well but then deviate from the title. Strong TOK essays retain a clear focus on the title throughout.

    • They focus on one part of the title but completely ignore another part of the title. Strong TOK essays ensure that they address all parts of the title, as well as considering any assumptions that are written into the title.

    • They fail to consider central terms and concepts used in the title, or alternatively where they simply provide lengthy descriptive dictionary definitions of these terms.

• “Linked effectively to areas of knowledge” 

  • The TOK prescribed essay titles may refer to specific areas of knowledge or they may ask students to discuss a claim in relation to two areas of knowledge but leave the choice of areas of knowledge to the student. In both question formats, it is vital that students make clear and effective links to areas of knowledge in their essays.

  • The term “area of knowledge” refers explicitly to the five areas of knowledge listed in the TOK guide: history, natural sciences, human sciences, mathematics and the arts.

  • Common Weakness

    • Sometimes students may wish to use an example or discipline that does not fit comfortably into an area of knowledge. While examiners are encouraged to be open to a variety of approaches, if a student takes this approach then it does require them to offer some additional justification or explanation for why they are using this example for that area of knowledge. It is therefore recommended that teachers advise their students against this approach, as it requires the student to make the case for why that example or discipline belongs to that particular area of knowledge.

• “Arguments are effectively supported by specific examples” 

  • The TOK essay requires students to undertake a critical exploration of the chosen title. It is therefore crucial that the discussion is analytical rather than simply descriptive and that students provide clear and coherent arguments that are supported by specific examples.

  • The term “specific examples” means that the student, for example, makes reference to a particular artist or artwork or scientist or scientific theory rather than making a generic reference to “artists” or “scientists”.

  • The examples in a TOK essay play an important role in supporting the argument. This means that it is not only the examples themselves that are important, but crucially also how they are used within the essay to support the arguments that the student is making.

  • Common Weakness

    • where students use too many examples and/or skip from one example to another without unpacking their relevance and significance and without showing how these examples support the argument being made. This tends to make the essay overly descriptive rather than analytical.

• “Clear awareness and evaluation of different points of view” 

  • The TOK essay should be a critical exploration rather than simply a one-sided statement of the student’s own viewpoint or opinion. To achieve high marks, students need to not only show awareness of different points of view but also to critically evaluate these different points of view.

  • Although students are required to engage with different points of view, TOK students should be encouraged to come to their own conclusions. They should be encouraged to make a critical appraisal of different points of view and to be clear what their own position is; for example, they might agree with a claim with reservations.

  • Within an essay, different points of view might take the form of claims and counterclaims or arguments and counterarguments. Students might, for example, discuss contrasting examples and different perspectives from different disciplines or areas of knowledge, or indeed from within the same discipline or area of knowledge.