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TOK ENDGAME:
TOK Essay STRATEGY

Getting started

The class activities on this page should be approached only after working through TOK Essay essentials.

The planning strategies on this page can be tackled “as is,” or rolled out in stages—with each section building on the next, over several weeks—perhaps adjusted by the class teacher with specific reference to individual prescribed titles.

The school’s internal deadlines for major IB Diploma assessments, and/or alignment agreements with TOK teaching colleagues, may also influence how a given teacher might proceed with this content. To facilitate teacher customization here is the entire TOK Essay Essentials, Strategy, Virtuosity and Blunders in Google Doc format!

Overview of TOK Essay strategy

Here are the six cumulative sections:

• Unpack your prompt

• Reconnect with the 5 Areas of Knowledge

• Focus on your essay format

• Using the TOK Framework to refine your planning

• Returning to the Rubric

• Finessing the quality of your analysis
  
  

CLASS ACTIVITY I:
unpack your prompt

This essential first activity is best approached as a lively class discussion. I begin with exploring a few carefully selected titles from a previous examination session. This provides some critical distance, downplays any underlying stress associated with looming essay deadlines, and reinforces the notion that unpacking the prompt is the obvious, bottom line, fail-safe, commonsense approach for ensuring a '‘sustained focus on the title” for any TOK essay. Here are the generic guiding questions:

1. Define the meanings of keywords in the prompt.

2. Differentiate between any nuanced or slightly ambiguous phrases in the prompt. 

Students should be invited to come up with an extra guiding question tailored to the wording of the selected individual prompt. To contextualize and demystify this, share this TOK Essay satirical poem. The poem consists solely of Command Terms excised from fifteen years of May and November TOK Essay prescribed titles.

CLASS ACTIVITY II:
Reconnect with the 5 Areas of Knowledge

The Exhibition prompts addressed the Core and Optional Themes. The TOK Essay focuses on Areas of Knowledge. The two Areas of Knowledge maybe imposed by the prompt. Where you have a free choice it is a sensible, default strategy to select two contrasting Areas of Knowledge from the official list:  

Natural Sciences
Human Sciences
History
The Arts
Mathematics

Don’t plunge in yet. Deliberately slow down. Take the time to reconnect with the Areas of Knowledge. Start by completing the table below to demonstrate that you can pinpoint the various academic subjects or sub-disciplines encompassed by Area of Knowledge  domains. The following  guidelines will help:

• List some of the academic subjects included in both the natural sciences and the human sciences. This will ensure that you do not confuse them and will widen the scope of your thinking. Don’t just limit your responses to the Group 3 and Group 4 IB subjects offered in your school.

• Generate a quick list of the key art genres. Don’t neglect literature. Also reflect for a moment on the knowledge implications of art domains that involve non-linguistic representation 

• No action required for the table, but pause to consider what is it about History and mathematics that qualify them as unique, standalone Areas of Knowledge?   

CLASS ACTIVITY III:
Focus on your TOK Essay format

Immerse your students in this basic format. Start with a silent reading. Follow this with a public reading featuring multiple student voices—enriched with some focused Q&A.

Here are the headings for an obvious, bare minimum, non-negotiable, skeletal format for the essay. 

Prescribed Title
Introduction
Main Body
Conclusion 
Citations

No surprises so far. Each component will be unpacked below with the qualification that the main body of the very best essays will transcend the basic format. Let’s stay with the fundamentals for now keeping in mind that even the greatest jazz performers can improvise, embellish and astonish, only after the basics have been mastered.

— PrESCRIBED TITLE

The prompt must be used verbatim – “exactly as given.”

— Introduction

First impressions are important. Take the time to get the opening sentence just right. Next delve into the meaning of the key terms in the prompt, using the precise wording and avoiding the cliche of dictionary definitions. If there is a particular nuance, or ambiguity, in the precise way the question is framed, take a moment to unpack that too.  For example, some prompts seemingly ask a direct question pointing to a “yes or no,” dichotomous response. Don't be fooled. A “yes and no” approach will almost certainly be the better way to go. At bottom all TOK prescribed Essay titles are invite “to-what-extent?” exploration.

In your introduction, state in advance the two Areas of Knowledge of your essay, even if they have been imposed in the prompt. This courteous and safe convention sets the frame for the reader and entails only a tiny word count redundancy. 

Finally, embrace the reality that you can’t possibly address every facet of an intriguing, open-ended Knowledge Question in 1600 words; so spell out, in general terms, what aspect, or aspects, of the prompt you have decided to explore. 
 

— Main Body

The essay prompt will require you to explore a knowledge question with reference to two Areas of Knowledge. The obvious strategy – at least in the planning stage –  is to divide the main body into two roughly equal chunks.  

Your essay must feature “different points of view.” A tried and trusted, minimalist approach would be to begin with a main argument for each Area of Knowledge and then counter this with an alternative perspective. This would produce a minimum of four body paragraphs. 

Each of the four body paragraphs will feature a real world example that will instantiate and help justify your arguments as you explore the essay title.  Here is a crude visualization. The four colored boxes represent the four main paragraphs of the body of your essay.

— Conclusion 

Cleverly and succinctly summarize and integrate your findings for each stated Area of Knowledge. Deliberately contrive to use the prompt’s key terms in what you write. You only have 1600 words. The end of your conclusion is where the story will stop this time, Try to end on an intriguing, open-ended aspect of the stated prompt that points to further exploration.

— Citations

Keep track of your sources as you go. You will need formal citations for all non trivial factual assertions, news items, artworks etc. Like in your Extended Essay: carefully standardize your format. Here is an example of formal citation of an online source:

Ewen Callaway (2022) Oldest-ever DNA shows mastodons roamed Greenland 2 million years ago. Nature. News article: December 7, 2022 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04377-x  (Date accessed: December 8, 2022)

CLASS ACTIVITY IV:
Approximate word count allocationS
for the basic format

At this juncture it is worth pausing to ask students to spend a few moments thinking about how best to distribute the 1600 words across the sections of the skeletal format. Most students come up with the following distribution or a version very close to it.

CLASS ACTIVITY V:
Using the TOK Framework
to refine your essay planning

So far we have unpacked the specific language in the prompt, revisited the sub-domains of the five Areas of Knowledge, and acknowledged the importance of justifying your knowledge claims with non-generic, real-world examples. We also established a basic six section structure for the essay with preliminary word count allocations. Now let’s build on that foundation using the TOK framework. 

The four elements of the TOK framework provide a universal, systematic structure for demystifying and enriching your understanding of each Area of Knowledge. The four elements consist of straightforward, generative questions that will help you refine your essay planning and drafting.

Start by undertaking a silent close reading of the complete Framework.

1. Scope
What is it about? 
What makes it intriguing? 
What are some of the intrinsic strengths and limitations? 
What is being studied, and what kinds of problems can be solved? 
Where are the frontiers? 
What are some of the current open, unanswered, or contentious questions?

2. Perspectives
What is the role of the individual in relation to others in the community of knowers in this domain?
How important are different perspectives?  
How do individuals contribute and what responsibilities rest upon them when they do? 
What are some of the key concepts and key terms used?  
What metaphors pertain to this area?

3. Methods and tools
What are some of the conventions and rituals involved in this particular Area of Knowledge? 
What methods or procedures are used? 
What assumptions underlie them?  
What role do models play? 
What is the role of technology in this domain?

4. Ethics
What are some of the ethical constraints on the methods used in the scope of inquiry in this particular Area of Knowledge?

REFINING WORKED THROUGH EXAMPLES AND MORE

Students already reconnected with the Areas of Knowledge when they completed the sub-domains table in the second class activity. The TOK Framework provides a deeper dive. Students should be encouraged to view the TOK Framework as a trustworthy traveling companion as they begin the first draft of the essay. The Framework is also a useful reference for the second prescribed teacher intervention—”discuss the student’s initial exploration of their selected title.”

The TOK Framework generative questions can guide:

1. Reconfirming the choice of prescribed title and the choice of Areas of Knowledge

2. Initial brainstorming and subsequent meta-thinking about the appropriateness of the selection of worked through, real-life examples.

3. Developing nuances in analysis especially with regard to main arguments and alternative perspectives

4. Pinpointing any underlying assumptions and implications

No specific class activity is proposed here beyond appropriate teacher/student and student/student interactions and sharing just before the class starts writing the first draft of the essay.

CLASS ACTIVITY VI:
RETURNING to the Rubric

In TOK Essay Essentials the class experienced a close encounter with the criteria that define a good TOK essay when they graded IB exemplars out of 10 using the rubric. As they approach writing their own essays, students should revisit the rubric paying special attention to the overarching diagnostic question:

“Does the student provide a clear, coherent and critical
exploration of the essay title?”

Students should be aiming high. Here are the criteria for scoring 9-10 points.

• The discussion has a sustained focus on the title and is linked effectively to areas of knowledge.

• Arguments are clear, coherent and effectively supported by specific examples. The implications of arguments are considered.

• There is clear awareness and evaluation of different points of view.

Here is a convenient Google Doc of TOK Essay Rubric

Students should perform a short public reading of the overarching diagnostic question (above) and the top range of criteria in the Rubric. This should be followed by a brief whole class discussion pinpointing the subtleties of the holistic qualitative descriptors.

The descriptors for the 7-8 points range are highly commendable but workmanlike:
Pertinent—Relevant—Analytical—Organized

Ask the class to characterize the descriptors for the 9-10 points range:
Insightful—Convincing—Accomplished—Lucid

End this short session by recommending that students periodically refer back to the Rubric as they draft and redraft their essays. Remind them that the final teacher intervention—”comment on one draft of the student’s essay”—will echo the Rubric criteria.

CLASS ACTIVITY VII:
FINESSING the quality of your analysis

All this generic planning only goes so far. As you draft your chosen TOK Essay you will be on your own to decide on the final structure and flow, and natural paragraphing. To obtain the highest scores the quality of your analysis will be paramount. Notice that the rubric calls for arguments that are “clear, coherent and effective.” More nuanced is ensuring that the “implications of arguments are considered.”

Your essay should be a model of clarity (could a smart adult, unconnected to TOK, understand it fully in one reading?). Your essay will provoke and invite the reader to accompany you on an unpretentious intellectual journey. You will not try to win your argument like an adversarial lawyer or snappy debater. Rather your essay will flow to-and-fro. There will be argument and counterargument. There might be some critical evaluation of gray area or ambiguities arising from contrasting viewpoints.

Most aspects of your exploration will be overt and in plain view but certain underlying assumptions and undercurrent implications of your arguments (especially if stretched a notch) will need to be identified and clarified. At times you will assert something and then converse with yourself — building on the to-and-fro, challenging yourself by articulating further intriguing questions as they emerge. 

Along the way you may decide that you might need to modify at least one of your real-world examples to meet the criteria of “awareness and evaluation of different points of view.” Including a non-Western, international or epistemic justice aspect is always appreciated by IB examiners, but be careful not stray too far from the Areas of Knowledge realm. 

CLASS ACTIVITY VIII:
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT —
TOK AIMS ARE THe SECRET Key to ESSAY SUCCESS

Here are the TOK Aims from the 2022 TOK Subject Guide:

• To encourage students to reflect on the central question, “How do we know that?”, and to recognize the value of asking that question

• To expose students to ambiguity, uncertainty and questions with multiple plausible answers

• To equip students to effectively navigate and make sense of the world, and help prepare them to encounter novel and complex situations

• To encourage students to be more aware of their own perspectives and to reflect critically on their own beliefs and assumptions

• To engage students with multiple perspectives, foster open-mindedness and develop intercultural understanding

• To encourage students to make connections between academic disciplines by exploring underlying concepts and by identifying similarities and differences in the methods of inquiry used in different areas of knowledge

• To prompt students to consider the importance of values, responsibilities and ethical concerns relating to the production, acquisition, application and communication of knowledge.

Final, LIGHTNING FAST, Rubric-based check list

✅ “a sustained focus on the title” 

✅ “ linked effectively to areas of knowledge” 

✅ “effectively supported by specific examples” 

✅ “implications of arguments are considered”

✅ “there is clear awareness and evaluation of different points of view”

Phew! Perhaps, to lighten things up students might enjoy the bullet points of the whimsical TOK Essay blunders to avoid.