North Hills Preparatory
Theory of Knowledge
Ms. Biela
PT Essay/ToK Essay
In all your subjects, getting the structure of essays right is important. But in TOK, which can sometimes involve dealing
with uncertain and nebulous areas, making sure your essay is well-organized is even more paramount. It’s so easy to get
led astray, and veer off the subject, or find yourself talking about one issue for much too long, and neglecting others.
Your essay needs to be structured around knowledge issues. These, remember, should be questions about knowledge
that allow you to present a two sided (ie objective) answer. The prescribed title that you choose to write should enable
you to come up with three or four relevant knowledge issues. Some are easier to structure than others – for example,
ones that ask you to compare different ways of knowing or areas of knowledge can be naturally structured around the
comparison that you have been asked to consider. For example, this question comes from the November 2009/May
2010 session:
To what extent is truth different in mathematics, the arts and ethics?
Your knowledge issues are therefore:
1. What is the nature of truth in mathematics?
2. What is the nature of truth in the arts?
3. What is the nature of truth in ethics?
You may wish to make your KIs a little more sophisticated, by wording it as:
1. To what extent can we arrive at an objective truth in mathematics?
2. To what extent can we arrive at an objective truth in the arts?
3. To what extent can we arrive at an objective truth in ethics?
So your essay is structured into three different sections almost before you have begun.
Then you need to organize your answer to each KI. This needs to be done rigidly around the following principles:
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First, a brief consideration or explanation of the KI, putting it in the context of the main title.
Then, you need to present the argument, which should be justified with evidence and your clearly-expressed
opinion based on personal experience (preferably from academic experience).
Next, you need to present a counter-claim, which should offer an alternative way of interpreting the KI, again,
with justification.
Finally, you need to present a conclusion, where you directly answer your KI question. Be careful not to
contradict yourself during your argument. You can’t say: ‘Mathematics offers us a completely objective truth,’
then say: ‘mathematics does not offer us a completely objective truth’. Instead, you should say that alternative
viewpoints are the ideas of others (if you don’t believe them yourself), and make it clear which view point you
subscribe to.
North Hills Preparatory
Theory of Knowledge
Ms. Biela
To sum up, each KI should be tackled in sections:
1. Introduction/agree or disagree
2. KI-Argument – with justification
3. Counter-claim – with justification
4. State the “mini” conclusion of the argument/counter-argument (why your initial argument is correct)
5. Repeat steps 2 ,3 and 4 however often necessary
6. Overall Conclusion directly dealing with the PT
Making links
But just as in any subject, you also have to be aware of linking the different ideas of your essay. This is where TOK helps
you out a little, because those links should be links between the different ways of knowing and areas of knowledge to
the different KIs you are considering. In this essay, if you have chosen to word each KI as a discussion of how objective
truth is in the three AOKs, then your link will be a comparison. As you write your essay (and links should be made
throughout the essay, not just in your overall conclusion) you’ll be saying how the nature of truth varies in these three
AOKs – how, perhaps, in mathematics it is far more rational and objective, and accessible by reason, and in ethics how
culture and society can make it more subjective, and something we arrive at by using more ways of knowing.
This means that you will have linked:

Math, the arts and ethics in terms of how they deal with truth.
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Reason, emotion, sense perception and language in how they are used within each AOK to help us arrive at the
truth
So this is a very effectively linked essay!
Including the ideas of others
Your justification of the points you are making should not just be done by offering your own opinion. This is important,
of course, but you also need to draw on the ideas of others, and refer to articles, studies, and theories that help us to
understand the areas you are considering. The more examples you can give (assuming they are reliable and relevant
examples), the stronger your argument will be.
But there’s a catch here. The word limit is quite low in the TOK essay, so don’t include so much by other people that you
haven’t expressed your own thoughts. A useful rule of thumb is that within each ‘mini-conclusion’, you should only be
giving your opinion, after having drawn on the ideas of others to illuminate the ideas in your argument and counterclaim. Remember to properly reference your sources, which mean making sure the examiners can trace the origin of
what you have used.
North Hills Preparatory
Theory of Knowledge
Ms. Biela
DO NOT USE:
Dictionary definitions
2+2=4 example
Black Swan Theory
Darwinism
The Holocaust
Copernicus
Columbus
Newton’s Apple
Hypotheticals
ANYTHING about your friend’s boyfriend/girlfriend cheating on them
The complete subjectivity of Ethics