Are there Examples You Should Avoid in TOK Essays
In Theory of Knowledge it's sometimes more interesting when a student uses an example (a quote, a story, a fact) that we haven't heard of before.
However, "original" evidence in your essays doesn't necessarily make them better essays, so don't worry about this too much. The more important thing is that you have used your examples well.
Common examples
Here's a story from quite a few years ago, but it's an interesting. One in the May 2016 TOK Subject Report, there was a list of some common examples that the TOK Chief Examiner at the time suggested students shouldn't use. In that person's opinion, they should be avoided because of their popularity. However, and this is the important part, there was a huge push-back from around the world about this. TOK teachers disagreed with the examiner and it was later clarified (many, many times) that students should feel very free to include whichever examples work best for them. Don't worry about trying to find examples that we haven't heard of. Rather, just write a great essay.
In case you're interested, here is the list of examples that was published.
One more quick notes: Interestingly I don't even agree that these are all very popular examples. I've been teaching TOK for over 14 years and some of these I have never read in a TOK essay. So I think it's fair to say that one teacher's "very common example" could be something another experienced teacher isn't very familiar with. Again, the most important thing is that it's a good example for your essay. Choose your examples carefully and take care with your writing.
Here's the official list:
1. Serendipitous discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming
2. Mark Rothko and environmental influences on his work
3. String theory and the role of evidence in the sciences
4. Margaret Mead's perspective during fieldwork in Samoa
5. The human aspects of the story of the discovery of DNA and of its structure from Friedrich Miescher to James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin
6. Bloodletting as an example of an obsolete practice in medical science
7. The value of the Enigma code and the work of Alan Turing
8. Alchemy as the necessary precursor to modern chemistry
9. Pablo Picasso and Guernica
10. Vincent van Gogh and Starry Night
11. Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa and Vitruvian Man
12. Isaac Newton and the compatibility of his scientific achievements and his religious orientation
13. Persistence of "anti-vaxxers" despite the exposure of Andrew Wakefield's claims in relation to MMR vaccine as fraudulent
14. The applications of imaginary numbers
15. Ludwig van Beethoven's deafness and reliance on "feeling"
16. Rounding of numbers (eg pi) as examples of simplification and inaccuracy in mathematics
17. Polynomials, factorisation and complexity
18. Music therapy as an application of knowledge in the arts
19. Different notations and ways of doing differentiation from Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz
20. Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb
21. The Hiroshima bomb versus nuclear fission reactors with respect to the value of knowledge
22. Work in number theory by Pythagoras, Pierre de Fermat and Andrew Wiles
23. Membrane structure from Davson/Danielli to Singer/Nicholson and the fluid mosaic model
24. Galileo Galilei’s house arrest and Pope John Paul II's admission of error in 1992
25. Friedrich Wöhler’s blow to vitalism with the non-biological synthesis of urea
26. Atomic theories from John Dalton to JJ Thompson to Ernest Rutherford to Niels Bohr to Erwin Schrödinger
27. Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer on language and eye witnesses
28. Francesco Redi, Louis Pasteur and the disproof of spontaneous generation
29. Alfred Wegener and continental drift
30. Lera Boroditsky’s article on Australian aboriginal orientation
31. Caloric vs kinetic theory with respect to "natural selection" in scientific knowledge
32. Leonhard Euler's equation allegedly having value without application
33. Development of heliocentrism from Aristarchus to Copernicus
34. Thalidomide prescribed for morning sickness and leprosy
35. The outcomes of the work of Fritz Haber for fertilizer and explosives
36. The Riemann hypothesis, large primes and Internet security
37. The Treaty of Versailles and the subsequent rise of Nazism in Germany
38. George Orwell's perspective as presented in Animal Farm
39. Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment and wave-particle duality in physics
40. The ethics of Edward Jenner's work on smallpox and vaccination
41. August Kekulé's dream and the structure of benzene
42. Antonio Damasio and somatic marker theory
43. Fritz Fischer and the alleged causes of WWI
44. Occam's razor with respect to Albert Einstein’s special relativity and Hendrik Lorentz’s ether
45. Gregor Mendel and overly neat experimental results for segregation and independent assortment (also Robert Millikan and determination of the electric charge on the electron)
46. Jackson Pollock’s art and the use of WOKs
47. The Amish and rejection of modern technology
48. The Phillips curve and transient accuracy in economics
49. Lock-and-key and induced fit models of enzyme action
50. Spherical and hyperbolic geometries as perspectives in mathematics
51. Confirmation bias and persistent error in the accepted human chromosome number
52. CERN and the Higgs boson as applied knowledge
53. Standard rival interpretations of the Cold War: traditional, revisionist, post-revisionist
54. Albert Einstein and the cosmological constant
55. Edwin Hubble and expansion of the universe
56. Ignaz Semmelweis and childbed fever
57. Conventional current and electron flow
58. The Nanjing massacre and perspectives
59. Alfred Adler and schemas in psychology as the basis for perspectives
60. Biston betularia and industrial melanism as an example of natural selection
61. Detection of gravitational waves in accordance with predictions from Einstein’s theory of general relativity
62. Feynman diagrams and quantum electrodynamics with respect to simplicity and understanding
63. Physiology from Galen to the discovery of blood circulation by William Harvey
64. The complexity of the chemistry of photosynthesis as presented at various stages of education
65. The patient’s “perspective” in connection with the use of placebos in medical testing
66. Heinrich Hertz and the subsequent application of radio waves
Tim is available for private tutoring, almost every day, to support you in writing your best TOK Essay and exhibition. He's an expert Theory of Knowledge teacher (a fully IB-trained teacher, marker and IB teacher-trainer) with over 20 years of teaching experience. 🚀 Click here to meet with Tim on Zoom and talk through your work. 🚀
Tim also helps students with IB Business Management, IB Global Politics, IB Economics, IB History, IB English and College Admissions essays.
Recent Posts
"This course has been excellent and of so much help to me.” - Kanika V. (India)
"This saved my life. 10/10
-Harold L (Hong Kong)
"Thanks a ton! I have used this article to guide me for my last 2 IA's and when I was assigned my 3rd and final Econ IA, the first thing I did once I got my Econ article, was open this page. Much appreciation from Pearson College UWC!
-Keegen Payne (Victoria, British Columbia)
"I actually just wanted to let you know that you have been a very big help for me in TOK and Economics. With your effort to publish all this information and advice to IB students, you're really making a difference!"
-Anne-Sophie T. @ UWC Maastricht (The Netherlands)
"I want to thank you for the resources that have been provided. As a result, I got an A for EE in business after following the steps written in this website, including the help from my supervisor of course. I would recommend the current IB students to read the resources in your web, in order to obtain more insights. Thank you once again, sir!"
-Cynthia @ Universitas Kristen Petra (Surabaya, Indonesia)
"I'm an IB student who has been lost until I found this website! This has the best advice on the web and I'm definitely recommending it to all my fellow IBers back at school. Definitely wish you were my economics teacher! Thank you so much for taking time to write these guides. You have truly saved my IB life!"
-Cat (UK)
"WOW! Thank you already for helping me. So many great posts about IB and how to be effective. So awesome. I will defiantly spend more time here and hopefully learn a lot. I just wanted to let you know how great and helpful your website is :)"
-Nea @ HF-kursus og IB World School (Denmark)
"Thank you so much Mr Woods. The Economics exam will start in 4 hours and I think I am ready for it!"
-Thao @ Auckland International College (New Zealand)
"Your website is amazing! I got two level 7's in my last IAs with the help of your site. Thank you, all the way from UWCSA"
-Nicolette Sauramba @ Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa (Swaziland)
"@adnamaweit Every self-motivated IB student knows @timwoods..."
-Amanda Tiew @ Campaka Schools (Malaysia)
"Just want to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation for this website and all the effort you've channelled into helping others with your knowledge and skills. I've found it extremely helpful and I cannot thank you enough!"
-Hachi @ Anglo-Chinese School (International) School (Singapore)
"Just wanted to send you a note of appreciation for the great and selfless contribution you have made. You must have already made a difference to so many lives and achieved the real purpose of our lives. "
-Hina Nihal @ Jeddah Knowledge International School (Saudi Arabia)
"Thank you so much Mr. Woods. I find it absolutely incredible that you take the time to answer students and write your posts. Just today I was talking with another friend of mine who, I just found out, also happens to be following your blog."
-Alyson @ EF Academy (New York)
"I just wanted to say that I got a 6 on my SL economics exam last year, and I strongly believe that was because of all the help I got from this website on commentaries. A big thank you from Dallas, TX."-Tashi
"Dear Mr. Woods, thank you so much for your structure for TOK essays. It's really helped me develop a clear idea of what to do when I was absolutely clueless before! Definitely recommending to all my peers."
-Justine @ Tunas Muda International School (Jakarta)
"This page is awesome. Thank you very much for your help in my IA. You saved my life. Argentina wishes the best for you. Gracias!"
-Carlos (Argentina)
"Thank you for this piece of gold! I was about to give up on my TOK when I saw this page! Now I know I can deal with the IB and TOK in particular! Greetings from PERU!"
-Mateo (Peru)
"Thank you so much for all of this voluntary support. I'm taking an online economics HL course and it becomes quite difficult at times to find assistance. You're a life saver!."
-Theone (Bangkok, Thailand),
"Hello, I just wanted to say thank you for writing these guides. They have been extremely helpful for me, I was just about to panic and give up on my IA and now I am actually really proud of it."
-Sofie Lind
"Dear Mr. Woods, your initiative is highly appreciated and needless to say, the resources on this website are helping thousands of students tremendously. As for me, I thank you sincerely for your notes on IB Economics, the Extended Essay and for Theory of Knowledge. Hats off! Nothing better than spreading wisdom! Congratulations!"
-Anonymous
"Everyone at my school in Mexico uses your Structure for TOK essays. I've used it on all of mine and I've never gotten lower than an A-. I just wanted to thank you for being a lifesaver."
-Maria @ Greengates School (Mexico City)
"How to structure an Economics Internal Assessment is amazing. Absolutely great. It is such a great help to have word counts of different sections and a detailed description on how to score high marks. Thank you so much."
-"Desperate Student"
"Just wanted to say, as a fellow Economics & Business teacher of IB, I love your site. So plain, simple but so effective. My students in Barcelona love it too and it makes my job easier. Keep up the good work, and thank you once again. Really good and inspirational information on your site!"
-Faraz Mirza @ International School of Amsterdam
"Thank you! This is tremendously helpful. I am writing three IAs tonight. Unsure as to what I would do without these posts these posts as a guide. Thanks again."
-"Procrastinator"
"I am an IB student from India and I am very very thankful to you for these sites. My extended essay, TOK essay and business IA are the result of your articles and ideas. Your site gave my extended essay a plan on how to go about it and made the journey simpler. The article how to score full marks in the business IA was really helpful as it gave me a plan and coming into TOK I was able to build my ideas in structured pattern.
-Srikanth Reddy @ Sreenidhi International School (Hyderabad, India)
"I was looking about to get some support material for my son’s TOK and EE today and your pages have been great. They are easy to follow and digest. My son was very grateful. Your blog has been a fabulous resource! Keep up the great work!"
-Karen (Doha, Qatar)
"Just wanted to write you a quick thank you note for putting up such a great revision website! It is honestly one of the best I have encountered online for IB Economics revision. If I was at OFS it would be a pleasure to have you as my Econs teacher!"
-Avi @ United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA), Singapore
"Your Economics IA slideshow really helped me understand what assessors were looking for, and how I could easily avoid loosing marks (word count etc). I really appreciate the time that you have spent to help students like me."
-Anonymous Student @ IBS of Provence (France)
“I teach ToK in Midvale, UT and LOVE your site. The students have really struggled with the essay writing process and your site structures it better than anything else I've ever received. Thanks”
-S. Allen (Utah, USA)
“i am an IB student here in India, and i was demotivated with regards to the workload this course has dished out to us every week. but i went through this website, and all of a sudden there's been a change of heart. thank you for posting such beautiful stuff that i can relate to.”
-Adi C.
“Your site is amazing!! Thank you so much! I am a senior in IB economics and thanks to you did very well in my IA! Just thought I had to let you know.”
-Pamela A.
"woooooooooooooow How to Write Successful College Application Essays has opened my eyes like so wide. thanx tim woods i sure will apply all these tips"
-Julie H.