Knowledge Questions?

[ultimateone]

Hey! In the ToK essay, do we present the knowledge questions in the form of questions or as claims? A source I read said that KQs should be integrated in claims and the question shouldn't just be explicitly mentioned in the essay, which I find a bit weird. Why shouldn't we be able to pose KQs in the form of questions?

 

Also, how many of them are we supposed to have in the essay? 

[Sandy]

You can either have the question explained implicitly (which is what i think you mean by presenting it in form of claims) or present it explicitly (write  it down as a question). Either ways, you should have a KQ. They don't judge on whether you have mentioned it in your essay or not, only on whether you're answering it or not. One KQ should be enough as otherwise you'll go beyond the limit of 1600 words or end up having arguments that are not well developed. In either case, you lose marks, so its not advisable to have more than 1 KQ. Hope that answers your question.

[ultimateone]

You can either have the question explained implicitly (which is what i think you mean by presenting it in form of claims) or present it explicitly (write  it down as a question). Either ways, you should have a KQ. They don't judge on whether you have mentioned it in your essay or not, only on whether you're answering it or not. One KQ should be enough as otherwise you'll go beyond the limit of 1600 words or end up having arguments that are not well developed. In either case, you lose marks, so its not advisable to have more than 1 KQ. Hope that answers your question.

Thanks for your reply. But why does the criteria refer to knowledge questions, referring to more than one? Also, any ideas as to how we can bring them up implicitly? Like we do still need to signpost that this a KQ we're talking about, right? To make it easier for the examiner to identify?

[Yugalarex]

I think what Sandy is referring to is the question in the prescribed title. From this question I would advise that you derive subsidiary knowledge questions as it helps you tackle the main knowledge question from several different angles. These subsidiary knowledge questions don't have to be in the form of questions necessarily, but you can put it in a statement. For example, one of my subsidiary knowledge questions was "Do we learn in isolation?" - I used this as my topic sentence for the paragraph and opened with "When considering the knower's perspective in the pursuit of knowledge, we need to interrogate whether or not we learn in isolation" (or something along those lines). You're still presenting a knowledge issue just not in the format of a question. However, make sure you go on to actually answer the question!

 

Yuga

[Sandy]

 

You can either have the question explained implicitly (which is what i think you mean by presenting it in form of claims) or present it explicitly (write  it down as a question). Either ways, you should have a KQ. They don't judge on whether you have mentioned it in your essay or not, only on whether you're answering it or not. One KQ should be enough as otherwise you'll go beyond the limit of 1600 words or end up having arguments that are not well developed. In either case, you lose marks, so its not advisable to have more than 1 KQ. Hope that answers your question.

Thanks for your reply. But why does the criteria refer to knowledge questions, referring to more than one? Also, any ideas as to how we can bring them up implicitly? Like we do still need to signpost that this a KQ we're talking about, right? To make it easier for the examiner to identify?

 

 

 

You should have one main knowledge question (and no yugalarex, I wasn't referring to the title). You can have as many subsidiary KQs as you want. You can refer to this sample. It doesn't mention any KQ explicitly, but it scored an A. You can also find other examples online, there are more than enough available.

[ultimateone]

 

 

You can either have the question explained implicitly (which is what i think you mean by presenting it in form of claims) or present it explicitly (write  it down as a question). Either ways, you should have a KQ. They don't judge on whether you have mentioned it in your essay or not, only on whether you're answering it or not. One KQ should be enough as otherwise you'll go beyond the limit of 1600 words or end up having arguments that are not well developed. In either case, you lose marks, so its not advisable to have more than 1 KQ. Hope that answers your question.

Thanks for your reply. But why does the criteria refer to knowledge questions, referring to more than one? Also, any ideas as to how we can bring them up implicitly? Like we do still need to signpost that this a KQ we're talking about, right? To make it easier for the examiner to identify?

 

 

 

You should have one main knowledge question (and no yugalarex, I wasn't referring to the title). You can have as many subsidiary KQs as you want. You can refer to this sample. It doesn't mention any KQ explicitly, but it scored an A. You can also find other examples online, there are more than enough available.

Main and subsidiary? I wasn't told about that. Are you sure? What's the difference? Isn't a KQ a KQ? 

Also, yes, the essay might have scored an A, but keep in mind that it was for the old syllabus, the emphasis on KQs is for the new syllabus I believe.

[Sandy]

 

 

 

You can either have the question explained implicitly (which is what i think you mean by presenting it in form of claims) or present it explicitly (write  it down as a question). Either ways, you should have a KQ. They don't judge on whether you have mentioned it in your essay or not, only on whether you're answering it or not. One KQ should be enough as otherwise you'll go beyond the limit of 1600 words or end up having arguments that are not well developed. In either case, you lose marks, so its not advisable to have more than 1 KQ. Hope that answers your question.

Thanks for your reply. But why does the criteria refer to knowledge questions, referring to more than one? Also, any ideas as to how we can bring them up implicitly? Like we do still need to signpost that this a KQ we're talking about, right? To make it easier for the examiner to identify?

 

 

 

You should have one main knowledge question (and no yugalarex, I wasn't referring to the title). You can have as many subsidiary KQs as you want. You can refer to this sample. It doesn't mention any KQ explicitly, but it scored an A. You can also find other examples online, there are more than enough available.

Main and subsidiary? I wasn't told about that. Are you sure? What's the difference? Isn't a KQ a KQ? 

Also, yes, the essay might have scored an A, but keep in mind that it was for the old syllabus, the emphasis on KQs is for the new syllabus I believe.

 

 

 

I know its old syllabus, but the essay is really good and would still score an A in the new syllabus.

As for main and subsidiary KQs, I'll explain that with an example.

Main KQ would be something like "To what extent is evidence required to justify a knowledge claim?"

Subsidiary KQ would then be "What role does evidence play in making a KC in natural science" and "How does language and imagination play a role in identifying evidence?"

You're not required to have subsidiary KQs, but you can have them. These basically help you in developing your KQ further, which will gain you marks.