Structuring your TOK essay is one of the most important things you’ll have to do before you start writing. This means making a plan for your essay based on the prescribed title you chose. This roadmap of your essay will tell you exactly what each paragraph of your essay is about and where it will lead you next.
My advice to you: invest enough time in this step. The more time you spend finding appropriate knowledge questions and real-life examples and structuring your argument, the better and more detailed your essay plan will be, and this will make writing the essay so much easier. You should take around two hours to complete this step.
First, choose a prescribed title and the Areas of Knowledge you want to concentrate on in your essay.
Next, brainstorm on the keywords mentioned in or implied by the title. In connection with the Areas of Knowledge these keywords should give rise to knowledge questions. Put simply, these are questions about knowledge that are related to the prescribed title and the Areas of Knowledge you chose. Note all the questions down that come to your mind and choose the ones that allow for the most interesting discussion in your opinion.
Generally, two knowledge questions are enough as you want to do them justice and treat them in depth in your essay. Remember, the word count is limited to 1600 words max, which really is not that much.
Once you’ve identified the two knowledge questions you want to use, formulate the corresponding claims and counter-claims. A claim is simply a statement that gives an answer to the knowledge question you posed. A counter-claim is yet another statement which answers the same knowledge question differently. It can even state the complete opposite to the claim you made earlier. For each of your knowledge questions you will need a claim and a counter-claim.
After you are done with this, you will have a skeleton of your essay, which looks something like this:
- Title
- Introduction
- 1st knowledge question
- Claim
- Counterclaim
- 2nd knowledge question
- Claim
- Counter-claim
- Conclusion
- Works cited
Next, look for real-life examples that support your claims and counter-claims. As you have two claims and two counter-claims you will need a total of four examples to support your argument.
These examples can be personal – from your experience as an IB student, for instance. Or they can be connected to historical developments or current research in specific academic disciplines. Whatever you choose, make sure these examples are linked to specific Areas of Knowledge.
Pay attention to how the claims and counter-claims are distributed across the Areas of Knowledge you chose. For instance, if you have two AoKs and two knowledge questions in your essay, you can treat one AoK per knowledge question. Or you can deal with both AoKs within the discussion of one knowledge question splitting them between the claim and the counter-claim and repeating this procedure for the second knowledge question. Either way, aim for an even distribution that will make your argument balanced.
Once you’ve found the real-life examples you want to use, you will have a pretty solid structure of your essay. It will consist of approximately six paragraphs and will look something like this:
- Title
- 1st paragraph:
- Introduction
- 2nd paragraph:
- 1st knowledge question
- Claim
- Real-life example
- Analysis
- 3rd paragraph:
- Counter-claim
- Real-life example
- Analysis
- Evaluation
- 4th paragraph:
- 1st knowledge question
- Claim
- Real-life example
- Analysis
- 5th paragraph:
- Counter-claim
- Real-life example
- Analysis
- 6th paragraph:
- Conclusion
- Works cited
If you want more information on how to write the intro, conclusion, and so on, check out the other blog articles in this series, which specifically deal with these issues, or join a TOK Club where we deal with these issues in detail.
For now, hope this was helpful.
Happy writing!