maturk Posted December 24, 2015 Report Share Posted December 24, 2015 Hello I'm just now starting my TOK essay and I had a look at the essay grading criteria. Here is the assessment criteria so that you don't have to google it: I noticed that the IB has made a clear difference between a level 5/4 essay and a level 3 essay in respect to the examples that are used in the analysis of knowledge questions. A good essay uses "real life examples" whereas a poor one uses "examples". I'm very confused about what the IB is trying to get at here. Does it just mean that I should not make up my own theoretical examples like "imagine that you were a member of Pluto's congress and you just heard that your long time ally, Earth, does not consider Pluto to be a planet... etc etc"? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vioh Posted December 24, 2015 Report Share Posted December 24, 2015 I'm just now starting my TOK essay and I had a look at the essay grading criteria. I noticed that the IB has made a clear difference between a level 5/4 essay and a level 3 essay in respect to the examples that are used in the analysis of knowledge questions. A good essay uses "real life examples" whereas a poor one uses "examples". I'm very confused about what the IB is trying to get at here. Does it just mean that I should not make up my own theoretical examples like "imagine that you were a member of Pluto's congress and you just heard that your long time ally, Earth, does not consider Pluto to be a planet... etc etc"? If I understand the IB correctly, I think real-life examples tend to be those that are either related to you personally, or have something to do with the world at the present time (or maybe future time). On the other hand, non-real-life examples are those that are either hypothetical (like you said) or something that have already happened in the past (e.g. historical events, or theories that were discovered in the past). So for example, if you are to do a TOK essay about maths or physics, non-real-life examples can be about Einstein's theory of relativity, Galileo's model of the solar system, or Gødel's incompleteness theorem, etc. On the other hand, real-life examples can be something like the discovery of the Higg's boson (which happened in 2013), or the LHC's reopening at higher energy level, etc. These are valid real-life examples because they happened in our lifetime. I think the reason that the IB emphasizes this is because non-real-life examples tend to be things that many people know about and would mention in their essays. On the other hand, real-life examples are those that are a little harder to find, and they are also a little more unique/personal which can then set your essay apart from other people's essays. That's why it's important for you to include real-life examples in order to achieve level 4 or 5. Personally, I think a good essay should have both non-real-life & real-life examples to support your arguments. So make sure you have them both! 3 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maturk Posted December 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2015 I'm just now starting my TOK essay and I had a look at the essay grading criteria. I noticed that the IB has made a clear difference between a level 5/4 essay and a level 3 essay in respect to the examples that are used in the analysis of knowledge questions. A good essay uses "real life examples" whereas a poor one uses "examples". I'm very confused about what the IB is trying to get at here. Does it just mean that I should not make up my own theoretical examples like "imagine that you were a member of Pluto's congress and you just heard that your long time ally, Earth, does not consider Pluto to be a planet... etc etc"? If I understand the IB correctly, I think real-life examples tend to be those that are either related to you personally, or have something to do with the world at the present time (or maybe future time). On the other hand, non-real-life examples are those that are either hypothetical (like you said) or something that have already happened in the past (e.g. historical events, or theories that were discovered in the past). So for example, if you are to do a TOK essay about maths or physics, non-real-life examples can be about Einstein's theory of relativity, Galileo's model of the solar system, or Gødel's incompleteness theorem, etc. On the other hand, real-life examples can be something like the discovery of the Higg's boson (which happened in 2013), or the LHC's reopening at higher energy level, etc. These are valid real-life examples because they happened in our lifetime. I think the reason that the IB emphasizes this is because non-real-life examples tend to be things that many people know about and would mention in their essays. On the other hand, real-life examples are those that are a little harder to find, and they are also a little more unique/personal which can then set your essay apart from other people's essays. That's why it's important for you to include real-life examples in order to achieve level 4 or 5. Personally, I think a good essay should have both non-real-life & real-life examples to support your arguments. So make sure you have them both! Oh wow I think you're right. I looked at the TOK presentation section and there they at least defined "real-life situation" (which is the integral aspect of the presentation) to be anything that has happened recently locally or globally. So, assuming that the IBO uses this definition of "real-life" consistently throughout the guide, then that would mean that the "real life examples" would be exactly how you described them to be. Thank you so much! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maturk Posted December 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2015 (edited) Hello I'm just now starting my TOK essay and I had a look at the essay grading criteria. Here is the assessment criteria so that you don't have to google it: capture 3.PNG I noticed that the IB has made a clear difference between a level 5/4 essay and a level 3 essay in respect to the examples that are used in the analysis of knowledge questions. A good essay uses "real life examples" whereas a poor one uses "examples". I'm very confused about what the IB is trying to get at here. Does it just mean that I should not make up my own theoretical examples like "imagine that you were a member of Pluto's congress and you just heard that your long time ally, Earth, does not consider Pluto to be a planet... etc etc"?This TOK essay rubric is the biggest pile of **** the IB has produced (according to several TOK teachers at my school). So I wouldn't be surprised if the IB a) just made a mistake (ie there is no difference) b) needed a way to differentiate different grade criteria by somehow making them sound different or c) it is the way you described it. Da*n the IBO! Considering the fact that the IBO and TOK in general aims to make students question such things as knowledge and the things that we claim to know, i.e. teaching us to be, to an extent, sceptics, it doesn't help at all when they use ambiguous wordings such as "real life". Can we even be sure there is such a thing as reality? Does "real life" refer to my life outside the internet? The guide is indeed BS! lol Edited December 24, 2015 by maturk Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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