The TOK essay
What is the essay all about?
The theory of knowledge course is assessed through a presentation and a 1600 word essay on your choice of one of 6 set title questions. The majority of your TOK marks come from the essay. The total TOK marks will be combined with your EE mark to give you a maximum of 3 points.
Your essay is marked externally. It is important that you upload the official PPF form, (TOK essay planning and progress form) together with your essay, otherwise you won't be able to submit the essay. On this form, you must write down 3 interactions you have had with your teachers in preparation for the essay. To ensure you achieve a good score for your essay, you should understand what the examiners are looking for. First and foremost, you should check through the TOK guide on how the essay question could fit within the TOK course. This is particularly useful as an initial exploration of the terminology used within the essay questions. The knowledge frameworks also come in very handy here (see home page). Secondly, you should plan your essay with the planning grid I embedded below. Make sure that you cover all aspects of the mark scheme and remember that a TOK essay is quite different in style and purpose from essays you write for other subjects. To avoid the common mistakes students (continue to!) make around the world, please check the document called "TOK essay writing advice" (see below). This document offers top tips from experienced examiners.
Your essay is marked externally. It is important that you upload the official PPF form, (TOK essay planning and progress form) together with your essay, otherwise you won't be able to submit the essay. On this form, you must write down 3 interactions you have had with your teachers in preparation for the essay. To ensure you achieve a good score for your essay, you should understand what the examiners are looking for. First and foremost, you should check through the TOK guide on how the essay question could fit within the TOK course. This is particularly useful as an initial exploration of the terminology used within the essay questions. The knowledge frameworks also come in very handy here (see home page). Secondly, you should plan your essay with the planning grid I embedded below. Make sure that you cover all aspects of the mark scheme and remember that a TOK essay is quite different in style and purpose from essays you write for other subjects. To avoid the common mistakes students (continue to!) make around the world, please check the document called "TOK essay writing advice" (see below). This document offers top tips from experienced examiners.
Official form to complete and submit with your essay:
You should complete an essay planning form, on which you document three interactions you have had with your TOK teacher. You need to upload this form with your essay.
planning_and_progress_form_essay.pdf | |
File Size: | 601 kb |
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Essay planning tools and top tips from examiners:
Use the following planning tools to prepare you for the essay. These tools are not compulsory, but could help you.
essay_planning_grid.docx | |
File Size: | 128 kb |
File Type: | docx |
tok_essay_writing_advice__3_.docx | |
File Size: | 275 kb |
File Type: | docx |
essay_writing_musical_chairs.docx | |
File Size: | 154 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Knowledge Questions
Knowledge questions are central to both the essay and the presentation. The documents on knowledge questions (see below) give you some tips on how to make them. The TOK guide also suggests possible knowledge questions per area of knowledge. Please look at these sections in the guide to help you get a better idea of what good knowledge questions look like and what makes good TOK material for discussions. For your essay, you should use knowledge questions as natural stepping stones to answer your essay question. These knowledge questions should ideally be embedded within your answer and linked clearly to real-life examples. Under no circumstances should you change the title of the essay question into a knowledge question, which you will then answer instead of the essay question.
knowledge_questions_gk.pdf | |
File Size: | 404 kb |
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Possible knowledge questions per area of knowledge (AOK)
as suggested by the TOK guide (2015)
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Essay titles
Current essay titles
november_2018_essay_titles.pdf | |
File Size: | 220 kb |
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may_2019_tok_essay_titles.pdf | |
File Size: | 188 kb |
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Past essay titles current specification 2015
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Past essay titles previous specifications
november_2014.pdf | |
File Size: | 76 kb |
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may_2014.pdf | |
File Size: | 85 kb |
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TOK guide: always a good idea to check before writing the essay.
theory_of_knowledge_ib_guide_2015.pdf | |
File Size: | 1821 kb |
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Examples: using real life situations to illustrate your essays.
You should illustrate your essay with concrete examples, coming from the real world. These examples can, amongst others, come from your IB DP subject lessons, research you have done or articles you have read. Do not look for real life examples as such on this website or on other TOK websites. This website aims to help you understand what TOK is all about. By copying the real-life examples from this website, you will reduce the originality of your essay. You may not be the only student who had this idea... Just open your eyes, read the news and pay attention to what is happening around you. You'll be surprised how much original TOK material you can find. Of course, it's OK to mention some of the ideas you have seen in your TOK lessons. But show to your teachers that you are able to think for yourself and come up with some original insights. Examiners complain year after year that students are using the same examples across the world. Some of these examples are becoming a little "cliché". remember to include a range of perspectives within your essays. If you are looking for inspiration of different perspectives and ideas, you can look at the following BBC Radio 4 website (A History of ideas). You can, of course, also talk to your subject teachers to find out different perspectives. They may also be able to help you find some good examples. TOK is a subject that is placed at the heart of the IB DP. By comparing methodologies used in your subject lessons, and by offering examples from your lessons, you can reach some very interesting conclusions in TOK terms.