How to write a good TOK essay
· Max 1600 words
· Use knowledge from all subjects you take
· Use knowledge from your life outside of school
· Use knowledge from CAS experiences (could, but doesn’t necessarily, give a good example for your essay)
· General and true questions (titles)
· Get different perspectives in your essays (for example use parents, family, do research etc.) Religion, gender, age etc.
· News and newspapers could be used to give different views
· All claims should be connected or supported by examples, and all examples should be effective and varied
· Don’t spend too many words explaining the example. Use 1-3 sentences to describe the example.
· Link knowledge issues to areas of knowledge and ways of knowing
· Step away from your essay to get a perspective on yourself
· The title should be exactly as given (no number needed)
· The title is the heading
· Well presented
· References are important
· Bibliography is needed as well
· Use personal example that other people will not be able to use
· The word count does not include: title, bibliography, pictures, maps, charts, diagrams, tables, illustrations, references
· Put word count in the end of the essay
· Do not hand in a first draft with more than 1600 words
Structure of the essay:
Paragraph 1: 150-200
Paragraph 2 and 3: 400
Paragraph 4 and 5: 400
Paragraph 6 and 7: 400
Paragraph 8-9: 150-200
Paragraph 1:
· Bring up knowledge question. Don’t state directly “my knowledge question is” or “KW =”. State it indirectly.
· State your thesis (basically short answer to the knowledge question) i.e. your main claim
· Present what you will bring up in the essay (to make it easier for readers to understand what you will talk about). Use one sentence do describe this. Basically bring up your main claims of each paragraph/perspective/view
· Make the introduction interesting, something that makes them want to continue reading
Paragraph 2:
· Start with a claim, which is connected to your knowledge question
· Explain and elaborate, clarify your claim
· Use an example to support your claim. Bring up persona examples that could perfectly support your claim. No fake examples.
Paragraph 3:
· Bring up a counter claim to the claim in the second paragraph.
· Explain and elaborate, clarify your counter claim
· Use an example to support your counterclaim
· Link this counter claim to your knowledge question. Sum up the insights quickly.
General tip:
Make sure your examples are open for people to understand. Don’t use complicated math, because the examiner might not understand it.
Paragraph 4:
· Claim
· Explain
· Example
Paragraph 5:
· Counterclaim
· Example
· Link to knowledge question
Paragraph 6 and 7 could look the same as 4 and 5.
Make it easy for the examiner to follow your ideas and understand what you are talking about.
Paragraph 8:
· Implications and significance. Why is this important? So what?
· Bring in perspectives. Explain a perspective that someone else would have. Only do this if you didn’t bring up perspectives in the pervious paragraphs.
· Bring back the previous perspectives and discuss
Paragraph 9:
· Sum up your arguments and conclude. State the thesis again, in short.
