List of TOK Examples To Write In Your Essay
This is a continuation of the article I’ve written recently on the “List of TOK Examples to Avoid”.
Instead of informing you guys “things to avoid” which may not be applicable to your essays, I’ve decided to come with another of things you should include! Just a word of advice: it’s not so black and white like the examples I stated in the previous article.
As mentioned here, I placed a disclaimer that these examples don’t mean you should strictly ignore them or not use them within your essays, but it should be used with caution as they’ve been overdone. You can still pull them off if you’ve the right context and argument, but just bear in mind that the odds are likely stake against yours. Then again, IB encourages risk-taking so go ahead if you are confident you can pull it off! (Just remember: risk/reward ratio)
Likewise, coming up TOK examples follows the same sentiment. It’s muddled, nebulous, and due to the nature of the subject being non-objective, the answer is often gray. The same evidence or real-life situation can be used in different essay questions, with different interpretations and perspectives being crafted up from it.
Furthermore, certain conflicting examples can be used in tandem, so long as they ultimately ‘make sense’ in a coherent argument.
As there’s no specific ‘example types’, I’ll share three kinds of “example types” which you can inculcate in your essay.
Type 1: YOUR OWN Real-Life Situation
This may sound out of the ordinary, but sometimes the best examples can come from your own personal experiences. If you’re looking for a subject-specific example, use your IA data, EE experiences, and share them in your essay.
The advantage of this is the IB marker can acknowledge that you’ve looked at your entire education holistically, and you have the capacity to interlink different disciplines with one another, such as amalgamating the Sciences and TOK together.
For instance, I decided to use my EE data collection as a form of real-life example in my TOK essay. In order to prove the point that all certain forms of knowledge have their own limitations and are oversimplified, I used my adoption of the ceteris paribus assumption while collecting my EE data. Ceteris paribus means to have all other conditions remain the same, with other factors being equal, meaning to ignore other factors and just focus on the relationship between two factors.
By doing so, I acknowledged that the creation of this knowledge, conclusions derived from my EE, was limited as there was a preconceived assumption. Bearing this in mind, I decided to use this example in my TOK to prove the point that knowledge in itself, is limited and to an extent, oversimplified or generalized.
You see? By incorporating my own TOK example into the essay, I am able to add a personal flair into my essay and craft a real-life situation which nobody else will ever have.
Type 2: Examples Taken from Academic Websites
These are the common types of examples you see your peers or other students writing. They are often Googled, lifted, and paraphrased to suit and contort into their own arguments.
There are some arguments which work well with this type of examples, and some which veer off track -- and they seem to never go back to its original course of return.
In order for these kinds of examples to work, understand your argument thoroughly, and then link them while ensuring its relevancy. In a sense, they are like incorporating your quotes into your literature essays. You wouldn’t want to include a quote such as “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” when the literature essay is asking about the abuse or subversion of power dynamics right? It works the same in TOK.
Relevancy, and link, is the most important here.
I always suggest my students to craft the arguments fast, and then find evidence which you can tweak to suit your argument’s ‘palate’ and ‘taste’.
Type 3: Examples Taken from Your Daily Observations
These are examples which may require some Googling, but not to the extent as mentioned in the earlier one.
These are real life situations which may ring a bell at the back of your mind when you’ve decided on your argument for TOK. Such situations are often deep within the recesses of your memory, and some recalling of your memory should do the trick.
For instance, in my essay, I was arguing how technology can remove the emotional element necessary for certain art forms to make it ‘art’. In my case, I remembered how I watched a YouTube video of a form of performance-live art, in which viewers will eventually cry as a result of overwhelming emotions.
This example was never Googled in the initial stage of research, but was somehow in the back of my mind as I was thinking about the area of knowledge in the field of the Arts. Similarly, I’m sure you’ve come across certain videos, documentaries, newspaper articles, and op-ed pieces that are definitely relevant to your TOK arguments.
These arguments do not need the search words “List of TOKs to add for Natural Sciences/History/Math” to be typed into a search engine. Rather, they are tangible experiences you’ve discovered as a daily observer in this world we live in.
In Summary
Frankly speaking, me listing examples of TOK real life situations you should incorporate to your essay is futile. Instead, let your examples and evidences speak volumes for your arguments, let them amplify the ‘personal essay voice’ that you believe in.
Any example can be used, even the ones I mentioned in the previous article. However, it’s all about using them with caution and being tactful about it which we should be concerned about. Make them work to serve you, and not let them become flaws in your work.
