tok essay 2021 examples

How To Write A ToK Essay - Updated 2023

Ace your ToK Essay with our expert tips & tricks! Get the latest and greatest techniques on "How To Write A ToK Essay" and impress the IB examiners.📝💡

Table of content

• Introduction

Purpose Of ToK

Assessment of tok, the game plan, execution of the gameplan, planning for tok essay, structure of tok essay, conclusions, bibliography.

Introduce your topic accurately and state your thesis statement for the essay carefully.  A thesis statement is like a teaser to your entire essay wherein you define your key terms and introduce your interpretation of the question. Make sure that you do not reword the prescribed title in your thesis. Instead, it needs to, as the word says, INTRODUCE your readers to what your essay is about. A strong introduction allows the reader to deduce what knowledge question(s) you are trying to answer.

So, in a nutshell

• Write interesting things about the given TOK essay title .
• Define key terms
• Narrow in on the particularly interesting aspect
• State your thesis statement . This will be your short answer to your given title if you don't know how to write a killer thesis statement check out this blog from SparkNotes .
• State your Roadmap. This will help the readers in understanding the direction of your essay.

How to write a TOK Essay? 

To answer that, you must familiarise yourself with what a TOK Essay is about.

Before you start reading this article,  Amanda  has some excellent TOK tips for you!

Theory of Knowledge is one of the most meta subjects that IB offers. Despite its complexity, TOK helps in providing a base for holistic learning and allows students to have a multidisciplinary experience. 

To understand TOK is to understand the essence of IB, a task that most people consider unattainable.

But not for you! 

Thank your lucky stars who made you land on Nail IB. How exactly will Nail IB help you? 

Well, nailing International Baccalaureate is something we will discuss later. 

Let's focus on cracking your TOK essay, shall we?

TOK demonstrates how students  can apply their knowledge  with  greater awareness  and  credibility .

Big words, huh? 

Now that we know that we cannot just slide through the Theory of Knowledge, let's understand how we can conquer this battle all guns blazing.

ToK essay’s primary objective is to answer the  why  behind our studies. 

It makes one aware of the real-life implications of their subjects. The students gain greater awareness of their personal and ideological assumptions and appreciate the diversity of different perspectives. It helps the students find their unique perception, a prerequisite for excelling in the IB TOK essays.

Before we dive into our gameplan, let’s overview the rules of the game.

There are two assessment tasks in the TOK: an essay and a presentation . While a presentation encourages students to explore a real-life situation through the lens of TOK, an essay is written on the basis of the various questions provided by the International Baccalaureate Organisation.

• The presentation is to assess a student’s ability to apply TOK thinking to a real-life situation whereas IB TOK essay is more conceptual.
• The essay is externally assessed by IB and must be on any one of the prescribed TOK essay titles issued by the IB for each examination session.
• Word limit of a TOK essay is 1600 words ( excludes extended notes, footnotes, bibliography).

Now that we have unleashed the game, let’s move ahead towards the gameplan of acing both, your presentation and your essay.

One of the fundamental tasks of TOK is to examine different areas of knowledge and find out their similarities and differences.

The TOK essay requires the students to investigate two Areas of Knowledge (AOK)  and two Ways of Knowing   (WOK) . AOKs and WOKs are investigated via questions such as:

• How do we know what we know? (WOK)
• What counts as evidence for X? (AOK)
• How do we judge which is the best model of Y? (WOK)
• What does theory Z mean in the real world? (AOK + WOK)

The aforementioned are  Knowledge Questions  which help combine the Areas of Knowledge and the Ways of Knowing that they are using. This eliminates the superficial way of learning and makes an individual sensitive to the nature of the information.   Our acquisition of Knowledge can be broadly divided into Shared Knowledge and Personal Knowledge.

Shared knowledge: What WE know It is the product of more than one individual. Although individuals contribute to it, shared knowledge does not solely depend upon the contributions of a particular individual—there are possibilities for others to check and amend individual contributions and add to the body of knowledge that already exists.

Personal knowledge: What I know It is essentially dependent on the experiences of a particular individual. Also known as procedural knowledge, it is gained through experience, practice and personal involvement and is intimately bound up with the particular local circumstances of the individual such as biography, interests, values, and so on.

The best hack to ace TOK essay is to develop a habit of making connections between the construction of knowledge, its acquisition and its relevance in the real world. 

After that one needs to develop an interest in understanding the difference between diversity and cultural perspectives and personal assumptions.

One also needs to critically reflect on their own beliefs and assumptions, leading to more thoughtful, responsible and purposeful lives.

Yes, this is what you signed up for. It may sound a little intimidating but once you get the hang of it you will be able to see the matrix and understand this beautiful world a little better.

Understand that to provide the best version of your writing, it will take you more than one or two drafts. First and foremost, you need to pick your essay topic diligently. Try to choose an essay topic that best interests you. The topic should also allow you to explore the Areas of Knowledge towards which you are naturally inclined. Here are a few sample questions:

a) 'Ways of knowing are a check on our instinctive judgments.' To what extend do you agree with this statement?

b) With reference to two areas of knowledge discuss the way in which shared knowledge can shape their personal knowledge.

c) How can we know if knowledge is produced more through 'Passive Observation' or 'Active-Experiment' within the Human and Natural-sciences under a Mathematical-Perspective?

d) "The whole point of knowledge is to produce both meaning and purpose in our personal lives". Assess the validity of this statement.

Great things take time. It took me more than a couple of weeks to finalize this TOK essay guide. It is completely okay if the first few drafts may not look pleasing or award-winning to you. You will require sharpening your perspective towards the topic each time you polish your draft. Your writing journey from a dull draft to a masterpiece will be a whole process that you will have to be patient with. Have faith in yourself and proceed stepwise.

You need to consider the opinions of others who have devoted hours of research and a lifetime of dedicated studying the topic that surrounds your writing. Unravelling the realms of your mind palace is so Sherlock but let’s not deny the fact that at times, Watson is the one whose expertise helps Sherlock through pretty difficult times. I mean even Batman needs a Robin. In support of my awesome sauce examples, the point I am trying to make is that  finding support for our claims and counterclaims through research is a good thing .

Use real-life examples to support your claims and counterclaims. These examples need to be documented researched examples like studies, experiments, articles, presentations by well-known people, etc. Examples that stem from your diploma subjects are highly encouraged, but those will need to be supported by research as well.   

It is suggested that you choose a title, stick to it, tackle it and not be afraid. Do not change your mind unless there is a good reason. Also, try choosing Areas of knowledge that you truly enjoy. You know slaying a known devil is much easier than an unknown one. Allot a TIMELINE to your essay. Start with creating an outline of your essay. This will help you to track your progress and accomplish your goals

You can use tools like  Trello  to organize your ideas and plan your TOK essay.

Areas of Knowledge (AOKs): TOK distinguishes between eight areas of knowledge. They are mathematics, the natural sciences, the human sciences, the arts, history, ethics, religious knowledge systems, and indigenous knowledge systems. It is suggested that students study and explore six of these eight.

Ways of knowing (WOKs): TOK identifies eight specific WOKs- language, sense perception, emotion, reason, imagination, faith, intuition, and memory. It is suggested that studying four of these eight in-depth would be appropriate. WOKs underlie the methodology of the areas of knowledge and provide a basis for personal knowledge.

Moving ahead, let us discuss the structure of your TOK essay.

Your essay will consist of 4 broad segregations

Before breaking down further on the pillars, keep the following in mind

• Please note what the TOK essay title is asking you. (Read it a couple of times. We highly recommend that you brainstorm ideas with your TOK coordinator)
• Make sure you understand the command term and the question it is asking.
• What kind of knowledge is being elicited?
• When choosing your areas of knowledge (AoK) and ways of knowing (WoK) make sure that you are able to draw contrasts and comparisons, that is, you are able to find evidence that supports as well as challenges your claims.
• Identify key terms in your TOK essay title. Make sure you define them. Your essay will gravitate around them. Key terms/words in your titles are your essay anchors. Your response should be built around them.
• Your writing skills come in handy while you work on your IB TOK essay. Like any other essay make sure you have proper thesis statements and topic sentences to guide the evaluator through your work.
• Respect the TOK essay title. Rephrasing the topic is not encouraged . Your main job is to address the title.

The body can be mainly divided into 3 segments.

Body (1st Segment)

• AoK Claim:  Here you investigate your first Area of Knowledge and draw parallels between your AoK and the question. This is done by stating your claim. Claims can be general in nature and need not reference a particular area of knowledge. They help you shape your essay and investigate the question further. 
• Evidence: Example of a real-life situation, describe thoroughly and accurately, which supports your stated claim. (AoK)
• Counter-Claim: State your counter-claim: like claims, those can be general and need not reference a particular area of knowledge. Counterclaim helps you show the other side the coin and gives your essay a holistic nature. 
• Evidence: A referenced real-life situation/example. Describe thoroughly and accurately, show how this supports your counterclaim (AoK ).
• Don’t forget to weave in your WoKs:  You need to take into account the source of your knowledge. Here you can also investigate if your nature of acquiring the knowledge has, in any way, affected it. It is good practice to question if your knowledge would be different had it been acquired through a different source/method
• Mini-conclusion: Here you analyze your examples in reference to your claims and counterclaims. You must connect to your thesis statement and the prescribed title. How does your proposed argument, in this particular part of the body, connect to the prescribed title and the knowledge questions you are trying to answer?

Body (2): Follow the above process for your second AOK.

• Use this part of your essay to compare and contrast your varying AoKs. You need to connect them to your thesis and your prescribed title clearly showing how your arguments respond to the PT.

Your conclusion section will make your essay come together. It is the glue that will make your essay stick together. Herein, you need to

• Reiterate your thesis (initial response).
• Use your mini conclusions to write a final conclusion.
• Tell the reader what the significance is for knowing what we know in this particular PT.
• Discuss implications as well.
• Offer another perspective, how will the perspective of a different person affect the claims/counterclaims you make in the essay?
• Don’t forget to make the end strong.

We recommend all the ib students use the  citation machine  (It's FREE) to organize or generate a bibliography for your TOK essay. Please go through this extensive guide provided by the IB before you start working on your citations.

If you are still struggling heaps with your TOK essay feel free to subscribe to our tok notes bundles or get access to more than 500+ IBDP notes and past papers here .

Nail IB is your virtual companion that helps you hustle through your diploma and provide you with the right resources at the right time. To know more about acing IB, click  here .

I hope this article will become the foundation for figuring out how to write a TOK Essay.

Remember to have faith in yourself.

I hope you NAIL your TOK essay!

Quoting the great Napolean Hill

"Whatever the mind of a man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

IB Resources you will love!

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Planning and structuring the TOK essay

TOK Home > Free TOK notes > TOK essay guidance > Planning and structuring the TOK essay

Once you’ve grasped the essay rubric , and chosen your title , you can start planning and structuring your TOK essay. You base this around the 3 interactions with your teacher, which are one-on-one meetings discussing your progress, and receiving feedback.

As well as the interactions, you can also ask your teacher specific questions about your essay, for example, the suitability of arguments and examples.

STEP 3: Plan and structure your TOK essay

Interaction 1.

In your first interaction, you’ll discuss the title that you have chosen and why, your interpretation of its general meaning, and the key words from the title that you’ve identified and will be focusing on.

You should also have a good idea about the areas of knowledge you’ll be using as the context of your essay (these may be specified in the title), the key concepts that could be included, and have a rough idea about the arguments and counterarguments that could be offered.

By the end of the first interaction, you should be clear about your choice (ideally, the meeting will have confirmed you made the right decision, rather than making you rethink it, but that’s still not a problem at this early stage of the essay-writing process), know the context you’ll be using, and be ready to write your introduction.

Interaction 2

During your second interaction, you’ll explain how you have moved your ideas forward, and the arguments and counterarguments that you’re developing. Ideally, you should be able to show your teacher your introduction, and a rough plan of the rest of your essay.

Be ready to discuss personal experiences and real-world examples that you will use to support points, key thinkers, and different points of view. It’s also useful to discuss any challenges and problems that you’ve encountered. Your teacher should then give you plenty of advice on how to turn all of this into a draft essay, which takes you to the final interaction.

Interaction 3

The third interaction is arguably the most important one, as it is when you will discuss your draft essay, and receive written feedback on how to turn this into your final version.

The first thing to ensure is that your draft is as complete as it possibly can be. The reason for this is that your teacher can only give you one set of written feedback, so if you’ve given them something that doesn’t have much detail, they won’t be able to give you any meaningful advice.

Make sure your teacher has had enough time to go over your essay, and has provided you with clear and detailed feedback on the strength and clarity of your arguments, the suitability of your examples, how successfully you’ve considered perspectives and implications, and how effectively your essay answers the questions. You should now feel ready to write the final version of the essay.

A four-step guide to the TOK essay

Click on the buttons below to take you to the four steps of creating a great TOK essay. Don’t forget that we have plenty of videos on this and other aspects of the course, and members of the site have access to a huge amount of other resources to help you master the course and assessment tasks.

Check out our three-minute explainer video on the TOK essay here . The video goes over the basics of the TOK essay, such as how it’s assessed, the word count and other practical details, terms such as ‘perspectives’ and ‘implications’, and the role of real-world examples in justifying claims and arguments.

You’ll find more videos on this and other aspects of TOK here , and you can dive into much more depth via our free and premium webinars, here .

Watch our essay & exhibition webinars

Click on the images below to access these premium webinars on how to create the essay and exhibition. Access more webinars here , and watch our videos on the assessment tasks on this page .

FAQs about the TOK essay

How do i choose my tok essay title.

You choose your essay from six prescribed essay titles, that are released at the beginning of your second DP year. We give a few tips on how to choose a PT that will work for you here . But briefly, choose one that links to your pre-existing knowledge, and that you find personally engaging.

What will I be writing about in my TOK essay?

You’ll be answering your prescribed title, within the context of two areas of knowledge, considering how different perspectives might affect our response to the question, and what the implications of your arguments are.

Can I use ChatGPT to write my essay?

You can use ChatGPT to help you gather materials for your essay, but you should definitely not be using it to write the essay. Be very careful with ChatGPT. It bases its answers on online material, and much of this is inaccurate or out-of-date. For example, depending on what you ask it, it may tell you that you have to explore multiple areas of knowledge (rather than the two stipulated by the titles), and that you have to identify a separate knowledge question to the title (which is absolutely not the case).

How much help should I expect from my teacher?

Your teacher should run through the PTs when they are first released, and then meet you for three interactions, during which you’ll discuss your progress. They are allowed to give you one set of written feedback. But you can consult them at other times with specific questions.

Do I need to use real-world examples in my TOK essay?

Yes, real-life examples help illustrate your points and make your arguments more tangible. They can be drawn from personal experiences, historical events, scientific discoveries, etc.

Should I include my personal opinion in the TOK essay?

While the TOK essay is not about your personal opinion per se, it’s important to reflect on your perspective and how it shapes the way you understand the title. However, you should avoid using the essay as a platform for rants or unsubstantiated claims.

Is it necessary to include counter-arguments in my TOK essay?

Yes, including counter-arguments shows a deeper understanding of the complexity of the topic and demonstrates your critical thinking skills. It also enables you to consider different perspectives, and evaluate the implications of arguments.

Should I include the 12 key concepts in my essay?

Yes, as much as you can, draw on the key concepts such as justification, evidence, perspective, bias, certainty, and objectivity within your arguments linking them to the title, and to the real-world examples you draw on.

How do I ensure that my TOK essay reflects my own original thinking, and avoids plagiarism?

Clearly attribute ideas and sources that are not your own, and strive to present original insights and interpretations supported by evidence and reasoning. See our point above on using ChatGPT – never view this as more than a tool to help you gather material for your essay, rather than a tool to write it for you.

What are some common pitfalls to avoid when writing a TOK essay?

Avoid oversimplifying complex issues, relying solely on personal opinion without justification, neglecting counter-arguments, veering off the question, and failing to include a consideration of different perspectives.

How long do I have to write my essay?

You’ll have 6 months from the time the prescribed titles are released, to the deadline date for uploading your essay to the IB. However, most schools will set their own deadline for completing the essay, so that everyone has plenty of time to complete your PPF, and upload it on time. Follow what your school tells you about this.

How important is the TOK essay PPF?

The PPF (‘Planning and Progress Form’) is the document that you fill in to outline your discussions during the three essay. Although this is not directly assessed, it is an important part of demonstrating that you have approached the TOK essay in an ethical way, which is now particularly important in the era of ChatGPT.

What are some effective strategies for revising and editing my TOK essay to improve clarity and coherence?

Take breaks between revisions, seek feedback from peers or teachers, and carefully proofread for grammar, punctuation, and coherence.

Should I include references or a bibliography in my TOK essay?

While not required, referencing sources appropriately adds credibility to your essay; use footnotes or endnotes for citations.

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Tok endgame: tok essay essentials.

Kafka overcoming writer's block by Robert Crumb

GETTING STARTED

Guide students through this page of TOK Essay essentials before plunging into the planning and writing process using the TOK Essay strategy. In the spirit of “doing and experiencing,” the classroom activities on this page will ensure a close encounter with the formal expectations and rubric.

RITE OF PASSAGE

The student-friendly Exhibition , undertaken during the first year of the course, is good preparation for the TOK Essay which, like the Extended Essay, is a culminating rite of passage for all Diploma students in their final year. It is suggested that ten teaching hours are devoted to working on the Essay. Prescribed titles are released six months before the submission deadline. They can be downloaded from the My IB portal and shared ceremoniously with your students.

By design the Exhibition is rooted in the Core and Optional Themes. The Essay emphasizes Areas of Knowledge.

CLASS ACTIVITY i: SETTING THE FRAME—ESSAY ESSENTIALS

Begin by setting out the expectations unambiguously. Tell students that TOK essay is a “formal, sustained piece of writing” in response to one of six prescribed titles. It is externally assessed, with twice the weighting of the Exhibition.

Here are the perennial conventions for the essay:

1. Title must be used “exactly as given”

2. Standard 12 size font—double spaced

3. Sources must be acknowledged

4. Maximum word count is 1600* words .

*The word count includes the main body of the essay including quotations. It does not include the title or references (whether given in footnotes, endnotes or in-text) and/or bibliography.

THREE TEACHER INTERVENTIONS

A close reading of the TOK Subject Guide on teacher guidance and the imperative to ensure authenticity is essential reading for the teacher. It declares that:

The TOK essay must be the student’s own work. However, the teacher plays an important role in supporting the student during the planning and writing of their essay. Teachers are expected to explain the requirements of the task and ensure that students are familiar with the assessment instrument, provide clarifications in response to students’ questions, monitor students’ progress, and check the authenticity of the student work.

During my own time as a TOK examiner, grading hundreds of randomly selected  essays from all over the world, it was very often obvious when a teacher had, for whatever reason (including, no doubt, student procrastination until the very last moment), taken a completely hands off approach, and left a weaker student to sink or swim. Over the years some very precise guidelines for the role of the teacher in preparation and planning have evolved.

Three mandated formal interactions between the student and teacher are recorded on the Planning and Progress Form (TK/PPF) :

1. Discuss the list of prescribed titles with the student.

2. Discuss the student’s initial exploration of their selected title

3. Comment on one draft of the student’s essay.

CLASS ACTIVITY II: GRADING IB EXEMPLARS WITH THE RUBRIC

The final piece for setting up students for success in the Essay is providing a close encounter with the official assessment rubric. Here is a convenient Google Doc version of the Rubric. Emphasize the “single driving question” that underpins the five levels of performance defined in the rubric:

Does the student provide a clear, coherent and critical exploration of the essay title?

Here are the descriptors for the highest levels of performance:

1. The discussion has a sustained focus on the title and is linked effectively to Areas of Knowledge. 2. Arguments are clear, coherent and effectively supported by specific examples. The implications of arguments are considered. 3. There is clear awareness and evaluation of different points of view .

In advance of the session download some Essay exemplars from the teacher support material at My IB. Select two of them and make them available to the class, ensuring that you select one that scored very highly. Then jump into following activity:

1. Working solo

Read and assimilate is the official Assessment Rubric 

Read and grade teacher chosen Essay Exemplar A

2. Find a partner

Share with detailed justifications your own grading decision.Try to reach consensus.

3. Repeat 1 and 2 with Essay Exemplar B

Call on student pairs in turn to reveal their grading consensus. Then provide cathartic release by verbally sharing the gist of the examiner’s perspective.

At this juncture the frame is set. It is time to unleash the TOK Essay Kraken!

Image source: Beast Legends

CLASS ACTIVITY III PRESCRIBED TITLES BRAINSTORM ENCOUNTER

Deliberately create an atmosphere of theatricality and ritual around the revelation of the year’s Essay titles. They are announced six months before the examination session. Print out (on both sides of one sheet of paper) the “Theory of Knowledge prescribed titles” document. The first page contains the IB logo and formal “Instructions to candidates,” the second page lists the titles. Place the printed copies with titles face down in front of each student with ceremony and gravitas.

Allow students to settle. Wait for silence. Maximize a pause for dramatic effect. Finally declare... “Let's all get started... Ready, Fire... Aim! Off you go...”

1. Turn over the page and make a close reading of the prescribed titles.

2. Trust your initial intuitions — identify your favorites. Are there any titles that initially you think you will avoid?

3. Share your initial thoughts with a partner.

4. Again with your partner, go deeper — for your favorite titles, think about two appropriate Areas of Knowledge, and brainstorm some specific real-world examples that could help provide a clear, coherent and critical exploration of the prompt?

3. Stop for now… know that the game is on!

Students are now primed to begin planning their own TOK Essay using a general TOK Strategy — that can be used “as is” or adapted by the teacher — for any prescribed title.

The Mona Lisa as an art example in a TOK essay is a cliche. Duchamp's 1919 Dadaist version L.H.O.O.Q. is not. The title is an obscene pun in French: Elle a chaud au cul.

IB ToK Essay Titles and Topics: May 2021

Here are links to ideas and suggestions relating to the the six May 2021 IB ToK Essay topics:

• Topic 1. "Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• Topic 2. Within areas of knowledge, how can we differentiate between change and progress? Answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• Topic 3. "Labels are a necessity in the organization of knowledge, but they also constrain our understanding." Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• Topic 4. "Statistics conceal as much as they reveal." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• Topic 5. "Areas of knowledge are most useful in combination with each other." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• Topic 6. " Avoiding bias seems a commendable goal, but this fails to recognize the positive role that bias can play in the pursuit of knowledge." Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Title 1: "Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Thoughts to consider with essay 1 include:

• is trust simply the same as the WOK faith?
• what is the difference between trusting oneself and trusting others?
• are self-evident truths taken on trust?

Title 2: Within areas of knowledge, how can we differentiate between change and progress? Answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Thoughts to consider with essay 2 include:

• the role of truth in distinguishing change and progress
• the functions or uses of knowledge
• the role of rational justification in defending knowledge claims

Title 3: "Labels are a necessity in the organization of knowledge, but they also constrain our understanding." Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Thoughts to consider with essay 3 include:

• are mental concepts labels?
• the role of the imagination in pushing the boundaries of unconstrained knowledge
• the difference between analysing something and labelling it

Title 4: "Statistics conceal as much as they reveal." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Thoughts to consider with essay 4 include:

• the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics
• the difference between subjective and objective probability
• what is the difference between appearance and reality?

Title 5: "Areas of knowledge are most useful in combination with each other." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Thoughts to consider with essay 5 include:

• the way different questions are asked in different AOKs
• the different methods that each AOK uses to answer its distinctive questions
• how can AOKs combine without merging and losing their identity?

Title 6: " Avoiding bias seems a commendable goal, but this fails to recognize the positive role that bias can play in the pursuit of knowledge." Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

Thoughts to consider with essay 6 include:

• can we ever see the world, as it is, without using concepts?
• do we need bias to form hypotheses in the imagination?
• what is the difference between an objective and a subjective judgement?
• 1. "Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• 2. Within areas of knowledge, how can we differentiate between change and progress? Answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• 3. "Labels are a necessity in the organization of knowledge, but they also constrain our understanding." Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• 4. "Statistics conceal as much as they reveal." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• 5. "Areas of knowledge are most useful in combination with each other." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.
• 6. " Avoiding bias seems a commendable goal, but this fails to recognize the positive role that bias can play in the pursuit of knowledge." Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.
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Breaking Down TOK Essay Titles 2021 | Part 2

Time for the second round of Breaking Down 2021 TOK Essay Titles! These are 3 great titles to consider when choosing which 2021 TOK essay you’ll write. All of them feel extremely relevant in today’s day and age so read on to get some top tips about how to approach them!

Note: Following these suggestions will not guarantee you a good score on your TOK Essay! These are our thoughts on the best ways to consider the questions, but ultimately it’s the quality of your arguments that will make or break your essay!

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“Statistics conceal as much as they reveal.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

This is an extremely pertinent statement to the situation that we’re living through right now. In a world of misinformation, alternative facts, and statistics being carefully selected to put one’s own argument forward can often lead to people being misled. It’s important to unpack this statement and its key words before diving into discussing your Real Life Examples (RLE) and Areas of Knowledge (AoK). Conceal typically has a negative connotation, implying hiding something intentionally whilst reveal has a more positive connotation as you are ‘discovering’ or ‘making clearer’. By the phrasing that they conceal ‘as much as’ they reveal, the statement is implying that all statistics will carry with them the same, or larger, amount of misinformation as it does information. Is this true? Can you find situations in which it definitely is not true?

Pivoting to consider which types of RLEs to bring up in this situation, one might naturally gravitate towards those that naturally have a tie to statistics. Don’t think that these are the only AOKs you can discuss in relation to this question, though! By coming up with a RLE from a different AoK you may separate yourself from the pack, not guaranteeing that you’ll score higher but at least giving you a chance to differentiate yourself from the rest. 

A great example of how statistics can be used to mislead is explained in the following TED Talk by Mark Liddell where the usage of two separate statistics to explain the effectiveness of a hospital paint two very different pictures! Similarly, in the age of Corona, one could look at the death rate as a percentage of population in the US and conclude that they are one of the worst affected countries in the world, while when you look at the death rate as a percentage of cases their situation looks much more promising as they’ve conducted so many tests that the proportion of those diagnosed with Corona that actually die is lower than many other countries! We don’t recommend that you use Corona as one of your RLEs for multiple reasons, primarily because it will be the go-to example for so many students all around the world, but this RLE exhibits just how much statistics can conceal as well as reveal!

An interesting RLE to consider is what the Soviet economy reportedly looked like during the 20th century. Many graphs coming out of the Soviet Union at the time showed an extremely prosperous, growing economy while many who were living there reported that the truth was nothing like it. This study conducted by the CIA looked into the validity of Soviet Economic Statistics during the 20th century and how the falsification of statistics may have concealed what life was really like.

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“Avoiding bias seems a commendable goal, but this fails to recognize the positive role that bias can play in the pursuit of knowledge.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

We think this is one of the most interesting of the 2021 TOK essay titles, but perhaps one of the most difficult to establish a clear argument in which you address multiple AoKs, WoKs, and RLEs. As with all titles, a lot of work will need to be put into breaking down what the statement is actually implying. First of all, what is bias and why does it typically have a negative connotation? We must also address why avoiding it is a commendable goal and if that truly is always the case. For example, when polling voters, who are naturally biased towards their top candidate, we wouldn’t want to avoid bias in the poll because we’d end up with irrelevant statistics! In fact, polls are an example in which we’re actively trying to measure the level of bias. However, you can of course make the argument that we want to avoid other forms of bias, such as selection bias, when polling. If you’re conducting a poll to get a clearer picture of who’s the front-runner for an election, it’s important to poll a large enough cohort with diverse enough backgrounds such that the results aren’t skewed by the sample chosen. 

If we choose the Human Sciences as our first AoK, exploring the Pollyanna Principle becomes a natural RLE. The Pollyanna Principle is a so-called ‘positivity bias’ allowing us to be happier, healthier and feel part of a community. People suffering from depression typically tend to focus on the negative more than the positive, while those who are not suffering from depression tend to do the opposite. What ensues is that they are more prone to remembering positive memories than negative ones! Read more about the Pollyanna Principle here .

Another RLE is looking at how bias can help in the business world! An interesting Economics paper published at the esteemed Wharton College at the University of Pennsylvania explores how a worker who overestimates their own ability might actually make everyone else in their organisation better off! Take a second to think about it – if a peer of yours set their target grade in the IB at a 45 they might inspire other people in their class to go for the same! Even if that target is far above what they could conceivably achieve, the overestimation, or biased self-perception, can lead to a positive effect on other students! We highly recommend you read the following paper to explore it further! 

So there we have it, the final three of the six 2021 TOK essay titles broken down! Still feeling unsure? We’ve got elite IB tutors ready and able to help you do yourself justice…

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ToK Essay: How to Choose and Explain Real-Life Examples

Finding the right real-life examples for the TOK essay can be difficult and time-consuming. Searching the web mindlessly often leads to no avail! I will share some of my experiences, both the good and bad, to help you easily find the right examples for your essay.

From the top band of the TOK mark scheme: ‘arguments… effectively supported by specific examples.’ – this shows that examples are an important element in the essay! They show the marker that the claims you make are not just theoretically true, but have real-world applications, allowing you to appreciate the interconnectedness between what you learn and the world we live in.

Real-life examples/situations (RLS) are examples that you can find in the real world to support your claims. Generally, you would be using a few key ideas from the RLS to show how your chosen claim is valid. 

A. Choosing a real-life example

You want to find an RLS which well… exemplifies the point that you are making. Certain key ideas in the RLS need to be relevant and of course, fit in with your point. Avoid having an RLS which only mildly covers your claim, where you end up having to ‘force-fit’ them into your essay.

A.1 Searching the web

When you google: ‘History RLS’, the results you are going to get will be from the many TOK websites out there. Most of them are filled with basic examples, probably not relevant to your point. Similarly, there are many over-used and general real-life examples that you should avoid. What you should do instead is to go back to your point and look for key ideas the example should have. For one of my claims on the AOK (area of knowledge) of History, I already had an idea about the type of RLS that I wanted to include and in my case: one with conflicting historical accounts, in which neither could be rejected. Thus I went to google looking for historical events. It took me quite a while but only once I put ‘various narratives’ into the search engine did I finally get somewhere. 

My advice: have an idea about the key points you need in the RLS, then look for specific types of examples rather than just any RLS in the AOK so that it will be more relevant and applicable to support that claim.

A.2 Using examples from your own academic subjects

You take so many subjects other than TOK in the IBDP, do not let all that knowledge go to waste during TOK. Using things you have learnt from other DP subjects is a quick way to find an RLS. Additionally, using your IA or EE experiences as RLSs is possible. Personally, I used the uncertainty results in my Physics IA and Schrodinger’s atomic model (from the HL Physics syllabus) to explain my points. I saved time researching and found it easy to incorporate them into the essay since I already had a good understanding of these RLSs.

My advice: look through your academic work, to see if there are any RLSs you can use for your arguments. Using your own projects as RLSs can even add an element of originality to your essay!

B. Explaining your real-life examples

Firstly, ensure that you fully understand your RLS. Do not choose an RLS that is too complicated and make sure ample research is done. You do not want to be in a situation where you selectively bring in points and ignore others. Very rarely, the worst-case-scenario would be that your examiner is well versed with your topic, and manages to point out flaws in your arguments. 

Next, give a brief overview of the RLS. 1 or 2 sentences would suffice to prevent you from wasting words. Get a friend who has not heard about your RLS to read it. If they can understand the gist of it without being confused, you have done a good job. Adding images can also aid in the marker’s understanding of the RLS. I included an image of Schrodinger’s model to give a visual of the density cloud of electrons. It was difficult to explain this in words, so a visual worked well for me.

After this, link key ideas in your RLS to TOK concepts and your claim. Your RLS should be evidence supporting your claim. It should help the examiner understand that your claim is credible and supported.

Final advice: Keep a log of all the used sources and the dates that you have accessed them in a separate document. Personally, I added an additional column with a brief summary of the points I was using from each source. As such, while doing references, I would know where I had used a source and have all the information necessary.

I hope that you have a better idea about how to search and explain appropriate real-life examples in your essay. It may not be easy finding RLSs, but it’s okay! All students go through it! Just take your time finding examples that are most appropriate and interesting to you!

You may also like…

• Elena’s Overview of the TOK Essay .
• Vansh’s Overview of the TOK Exhibition .

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• Areas of Knowledge
• Human Sciences
• Knowledge and Language
• Knowledge and Technology
• Knowledge and the Knower
• Knowledge Framework
• Knowledge Questions
• Mathematics
• Natural Sciences
• Optional Themes
• The Core Theme
• TOK Concepts
• TOK Exhibition

TOK exhibition Sample 3

Alexey Popov March 10, 2021 Assessment , TOK Exhibition

This is our THIRD TOK exhibition sample: the written commentary itself as well as a video that gives a step-by-step explanation of the full creation process.

TOK exhibition Sample 3 uses the following approach:

• Start with a particular topic or concept
• Find an interesting object related to this topic or concept
• Find a suitable prompt
• Find the other two objects to “develop the message”

The IA prompt that was selected here is “How important are material tools in the production or acquisition of knowledge?”. The three objects are:

• Screenshot from Botpoet.com (a Turing test for IA-generated poetry)
• The Large Hadron Collider
• The article “Nasal distortion in short-distance photographs” from the online journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery

Why we are doing this

ThemEd’s TOK textbook for the new syllabus

We at Themantic Education think that the best way to support students in making their TOK exhibition is to demonstrate some specific examples – not only the final product, but the full thinking process that went into it. This way students will understand not only where they need to go, but also how to get there.

For this reason we have created several sample TOK exhibitions each using a slightly diff erent approach to selecting the objects.

Each of our sample exhibitions includes the fully written TOK exhibition commentary and a YouTube video that gives a step-by-step explanation of how the exhibition was created. Together they will help your students understand the process thor oughly.

Don’t forget to check out our other TOK exhibition samples! See Thematic Education’s IB TOK playlist on YouTube

(And buy our textbook , it’s awesome and different from all other textbooks)

EXPLAINER VIDEO: The process of creation

WRITTEN COMMENTARY: How important are material tools in the production or acquisition of knowledge?

My first object is a screenshot from the website botpoet.com – it’s a website dedicated to the competition called “Bot or Not?”. This unusual competition is between humans and machines in writing poetry. Essentially it is a Turing test. Users are asked to read 10 poems and guess if they were written by a human or a machine. If they can’t, we assume that machines have passed the test by producing poetry that is indistinguishable from human creation. This particular poem was written by a computer algorithm, but I mistakenly thought that it was written by a human. The poem looked “human” to me, so the machine managed to fool me. 

Poetry is a special kind of non-propositional knowledge that serves as a map to the world of our own experiences. Artificial intelligence is a material tool that we have created to perform certain tasks. But artificial intelligence has evolved to the point where it can be a creator itself. Therefore the object links to the prompt because it is a case of a material tool (artificial intelligence) involved in the production of knowledge (poetry). Moreover, it is a case where the material tool actually produces knowledge all by itself, with no involvement of the original creator.

I have included this object in the exhibition because poetry is one form of knowledge that is often argued to be inherently human. It is commonly believed that the only tool involved in the production of poetry is the human soul. If a machine can produce knowledge that is “inherently human”, then of course material tools are very important in the production of knowledge. In fact, they are so important that they are taking over the human territory, replacing their original creators.

My second object is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is the largest particle accelerator in the world, and it is also the largest machine in the world. It took 10 years to build and more than 100 countries collaborated. It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometers in circumference, 175 meters beneath the ground near Geneva. Its purpose is to accelerate particles and make them collide at a very high speed, so that an analysis of their debris could help understand what these particles consist of (Mann, 2019). One particle in particular was of special interest – the Higgs Boson, a hypothetical particle that, according to the so-called Standard Model in particle physics, explains why all other particles have mass. The existence of the boson was predicted in 1964. If the boson does not exist, the Standard Model is false. In 2012, 48 years after the prediction, the particle was finally found in the Large Hadron Collider. This discovery was a big deal in science (Greene, 2013). 

This object links to the prompt because the Large Hadron Collider is without a doubt a material tool that we have built to produce knowledge about elementary particles. The only way to understand what small particles consist of is to break them into pieces, and the only way to do that is to accelerate them to a speed close to the speed of light and carefully register the trajectory of the debris resulting from the collision. Such knowledge is impossible without a material tool. 

However, the reason this object was included in the exhibition is that it demonstrates that we are reaching the limit of what material tools are capable of. Material tools are useful, but there seems to be a point after which, no matter how sophisticated our material tools are, no new knowledge will be obtained. The LHC has been a tremendous effort – 48 years of work and billions of dollars to test one hypothesis. Beyond a certain point, it would no longer be practically possible to test theories. This example shows that material tools have their limitations. There are thresholds they cannot cross.

My third object is an article about “the selfie effect” published in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery . This is a screenshot of the article on the journal’s website. This article argues that selfies distort the proportions of our face, making our nose appear 30 % larger than it really is. Note that the article is published in a journal about facial plastic surgery! The thing is, plastic surgeons have been reporting a sharp increase in the number of patients who want to go through nose reduction surgery because they don’t like the way they look in selfies. Most of these patients don’t realize that selfies distort their face. Psychologists have invented a term – snapchat dysmorphia (Ramphul & Mejias, 2018). Ward’s article which is the object of my exhibition was the first step towards understanding this condition.

This links to the IA prompt because photography is a material tool that we use in our everyday lives to understand how we look. Acquisition of knowledge in this case refers to my knowledge about my own body appearance, or my body image. Now that smartphones are ubiquitous and selfies are a trend, we may rely on selfies to acquire knowledge about our own appearance. We don’t realize that we are getting a distorted picture, and this results in biased perceptions. 

I have included this object in the exhibition because, unlike the first two objects, it shows that the role of material tools in the acquisition of knowledge is not always positive. In fact, material tools can actually do harm and result in distorted knowledge, for which reason it is essential that we are aware of their limitations. This is probably true for the daily knowledge that we acquire in everyday personal lives, but this can also be taken as a lesson for bodies of knowledge that we share as communities. 

Word count: 950 words

References:

• Greene, Brian (July 2013). How the Higgs Boson was found. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-the-higgs-boson-was-found-4723520/
• Mann, Adam (2019, January 29). What is the Large Hadron Collider? LiveScience. Retrieved from: https://www.livescience.com/64623-large-hadron-collider.html
• Ramphul, K., & Mejias, S. G. (2018). Is “Snapchat Dysmorphia” a Real Issue?. Cureus, 10(3), e2263. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.2263

Alexey Popov is a teacher of IB Psychology and Theory of Knowledge. He is an IB author, examiner and workshop leader. He also authored Oxford IB Psychology books. He currently lives in Hong Kong.

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TOK assessment outline

Tok assessment details, the tok exhibition, tok essay on a prescribed title, tok assessment instruments, global impression marking, tok exhibition assessment instrument, tok essay assessment instrument, understanding the tok essay assessment instrument.

The TOK exhibition explores how TOK manifests in the world around us. For this reason it is strongly recommended that students base their exhibition on one of the TOK themes (either the core theme or one of the optional themes).

The TOK exhibition is an internal assessment component—it is marked by the teacher and is externally moderated by the IB. Internal assessment is an integral part of all DP courses. It enables students to demonstrate the application of their skills and knowledge, and to pursue their personal interests.

For this task, students are required to create an exhibition of three objects that connect to one of the 35 “IA prompts” provided in the “IA prompts” section of this guide. Students must select just one IA prompt on which to base their exhibition, and all three objects must be linked to the same IA prompt.

Students are required to create an exhibition comprising three objects, or images of objects, and an accompanying written commentary on each object. To enable their exhibition to be marked by their TOK teacher and for samples of student work to be submitted to the IB for moderation, students are required to produce a single file containing:

• a title clearly indicating their selected IA prompt
• images of their three objects
• a typed commentary on each object that identifies each object and its specific real-world context, justifies its inclusion in the exhibition and links to the IA prompt (maximum 950 words)
• appropriate citations and references.

Each student must create an individual exhibition. Group work may  not  be undertaken by students. Multiple students in the same TOK class are permitted to create exhibitions on the same IA prompt. However, students in the same class are not permitted to use any of the same objects.

The TOK exhibition task has been explicitly designed to be completed during the first year of the DP. To support DP students, it is important that schools have a clear overall schedule of internal deadlines for the completion of the internal assessment tasks for the different subjects. Within this schedule, teachers are strongly encouraged to complete the TOK exhibition in the first year of the programme.

Further guidance on the TOK exhibition task, including marked and annotated examples of student work, can be found in the Theory of knowledge teacher support material.

The TOK exhibition process

It is recommended that a total of approximately  eight hours  of teaching time should be allocated to the TOK exhibition task.

The TOK exhibition process consists of three key steps.

Summary of the TOK exhibition process

The IA prompts are a set of 35 high-level knowledge questions. Students must select  one  of the following IA prompts on which to base their exhibition, and all three objects must be linked to the same prompt. These IA prompts apply for all examination sessions for the life of this guide—they do not change from session to session.

Students are required to create an exhibition of three objects that connect to  one  of the following IA prompts.

• What counts as knowledge?
• Are some types of knowledge more useful than others?
• What features of knowledge have an impact on its reliability?
• On what grounds might we doubt a claim?
• What counts as good evidence for a claim?
• How does the way that we organize or classify knowledge affect what we know?
• What are the implications of having, or not having, knowledge?
• To what extent is certainty attainable?
• Are some types of knowledge less open to interpretation than others?
• What challenges are raised by the dissemination and/or communication of knowledge?
• Can new knowledge change established values or beliefs?
• Is bias inevitable in the production of knowledge?
• How can we know that current knowledge is an improvement upon past knowledge?
• Does some knowledge belong only to particular communities of knowers?
• What constraints are there on the pursuit of knowledge?
• Should some knowledge not be sought on ethical grounds?
• Why do we seek knowledge?
• Are some things unknowable?
• What counts as a good justification for a claim?
• What is the relationship between personal experience and knowledge?
• What is the relationship between knowledge and culture?
• What role do experts play in influencing our consumption or acquisition of knowledge?
• How important are material tools in the production or acquisition of knowledge?
• How might the context in which knowledge is presented influence whether it is accepted or rejected?
• How can we distinguish between knowledge, belief and opinion?
• Does our knowledge depend on our interactions with other knowers?
• Does all knowledge impose ethical obligations on those who know it?
• To what extent is objectivity possible in the production or acquisition of knowledge?
• Who owns knowledge?
• What role does imagination play in producing knowledge about the world?
• How can we judge when evidence is adequate?
• What makes a good explanation?
• How is current knowledge shaped by its historical development?
• In what ways do our values affect our acquisition of knowledge?
• In what ways do values affect the production of knowledge?

The chosen IA prompt must be used exactly as given; it must not be altered in any way.

• If the IA prompt has been modified but it is still clear which IA prompt the student is referring to, the TOK exhibition should be marked as using the original IA prompt. Any lack of relevance in the student’s response arising from this modification will be reflected in the score awarded.
• If it is clear that the TOK Exhibition is not based on one of the IA prompts listed, the TOK exhibition should be awarded a score of zero, in accordance with the TOK Exhibition assessment instrument.

An extremely wide variety of different types of objects are suitable for use in a TOK exhibition. Students are encouraged to choose objects that are of personal interest and that they have come across in their academic studies and/or their lives beyond the classroom.

It is  strongly recommended  that students base their exhibition on one of the themes (the core theme or one of the optional themes). This can be an extremely useful way to help students narrow down their choice of objects and give a focus to their exhibition.

Digital or physical objects

The objects may be digital rather than physical objects. For example, students could include a photograph of an object, such as a historical treaty, where it would not be practical/possible for them to exhibit the physical object. Students may also use digital objects such as a tweet by a political leader. However, they must be specific objects that have a specific real-world context—objects that exist in a particular time and place (including virtual spaces). They may be objects that the student has created themselves, but they must be pre-existing objects rather than objects created specifically for the purposes of the exhibition.

Context of an object

The specific real-world context of each object is extremely important to the task. It is, therefore, important that students identify specific objects to discuss rather than using generic objects and generic images from the internet. For example, a discussion and photograph of a student’s baby brother is an example of an object that has a specific real-world context, whereas a generic image of “a baby” from an internet image search is not.

Examples of the diverse kinds of objects students could select include the following.

• A tweet from the President of the United States
• An image of the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso
• The student’s own extended essay (EE)
• A basketball used by the student during their physical education lessons
• The graphic novel The Colour of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa
• A painting that the student created in their DP visual arts course
• A refillable water bottle provided to each student in a school as part of a sustainability initiative
• A news article from the popular website Buzzfeed
• A photograph of the student playing in an orchestra

Further guidance on the role of objects in the exhibition and examples of student exhibitions can be found in the Theory of knowledge teacher support material.

Images of objects

The image of each object used in the exhibition must be appropriately referenced. If an object is the student’s own original work (for example, a painting that they created in a visual arts class) then this should be identified and acknowledged to ensure that teachers and moderators are clear about the origins of the object.

The maximum overall word count for the TOK exhibition is  950 words . This word count includes the written commentaries on each of the three objects. It does not include:

• any text contained on/within the objects themselves
• acknowledgments, references (whether given in footnotes, endnotes or in-text) or bibliography.

If an exhibition exceeds the word limit, then examiners are instructed to stop reading after 950 words and to base their assessment on only the first 950 words. Extended footnotes or appendices are not appropriate to a TOK exhibition.

Guidance and authenticity

The work submitted for internal assessment must be the student’s own work. However, it is not the intention that students should be left to work on the internal assessment component without any support from the teacher. The teacher should play an important role during both the planning stage and the period when the student is working on the internally assessed work.

It is recommended that a total of approximately  8 hours  of teaching time should be allocated to the exhibition task. This should include:

• time for the teacher to explain the requirements of the task and ensure that students are familiar with the assessment instrument
• in-class time for students to ask questions and seek clarifications
• time for the teacher to review and monitor students’ progress, and to check authenticity.

Students should be encouraged to initiate discussions with the teacher to obtain advice and information, and students must not be penalized for seeking guidance. Teachers should read and give advice to students on  one  draft of the work. They should provide oral or written advice on how the work could be improved, but they may not edit the draft. The next version handed to the teacher must be the final version for submission.

It is the responsibility of teachers to ensure that all students understand the basic meaning and significance of concepts that relate to academic honesty, especially authenticity and intellectual property. Teachers must ensure that all student work for assessment is prepared according to the requirements and must explain clearly to students that the internally assessed work must be entirely their own.

All work submitted to the IB for moderation or assessment must be authenticated by a teacher and must not include any known instances of suspected or confirmed misconduct. Each student must confirm that the work is his or her authentic work and constitutes the final version of that work. Once a student has officially submitted the final version of the work it cannot be retracted. The requirement to confirm the authenticity of work applies to the work of all students, not just the sample work that will be submitted to the IB for the purpose of moderation.

Authenticity may be checked by discussion with the student on the content of the work, and scrutiny of one or more of the following.

• The student’s initial proposal
• The first draft of the written work
• The references provided
• The style of writing compared with work known to be that of the student
• The analysis of the work by a web-based plagiarism detection service

Additional Details

The TOK exhibition focuses on exploring how TOK manifests in the world around us. Students are required to select one prompt from the list of 35 internal assessment prompts provided in the TOK subject guide. They then curate an exhibition of three objects connected to their chosen prompt.

An extremely wide variety of different types of objects are suitable for use in a TOK exhibition. Students are encouraged to select objects that have personal relevance or that link to areas of personal interest. For example, a student with an interest in fantasy football might select an object such as a set of fantasy football rankings or a set of football statistics, or a student might choose to include a personal item such as a photograph of a grandparent.

The student may have created the objects themselves, but they must be pre-existing objects rather than ones created specifically for the purposes of the exhibition. The objects may also be digital rather than physical. For example, students could include a photograph of an object where it would not be practical or possible for them to exhibit the physical object. Students may also use digital objects, such as a post on social media.

However, what is really important for this task is that the students select objects that have a specific realworld context—objects that exist in a particular time and place, including virtual spaces. For example, a photograph of a student’s childhood teddy bear is an example of an object that has a specific real-world context, whereas a generic image of “a teddy bear” from an internet search is not.

The TOK essay engages students in a formal, sustained piece of writing in response to one of the six titles that are prescribed by the IB for each examination session. These titles take the form of knowledge questions that are focused on the areas of knowledge.

The TOK essay is an external assessment component. Each student’s essay is submitted to the IB to be marked by IB examiners. The TOK Essay must be written in standard 12 type size and be double spaced. It is not primarily a research paper, but it is expected that specific sources will be used, and these must be acknowledged.

Essay titles

The IB releases a set of six prescribed titles for each examination session. These titles are published on the programme resource centre (TOK>Assessment>Session-specific material) six months before the submission deadline.

It is not intended that students will spend six months working on their essays—teachers should select a window within that six-month period for students to work on their essays that fits with the other commitments in their school calendars. It is suggested that  10 hours  of teaching time should be dedicated to working on the TOK Essay.

The chosen title must be used exactly as given; it must not be altered in any way.

• If the title has been modified but it is still clear which prescribed title for the current session it refers to, the essay will be marked against that prescribed title. Any lack of relevance in the student’s response to the prescribed title arising from this modification will be reflected in the score awarded.
• If it is clear that the title bears no resemblance to any title for the current session, the essay will be awarded a score of zero, in accordance with the TOK essay assessment instrument.

The maximum length of the essay is  1,600 words. Extended footnotes or appendices are not appropriate for the TOK essay.

The word count includes:

• the main part of the essay
• any quotations.

The word count does not include:

• any acknowledgments
• the references (whether given in footnotes, endnotes or in-text) and bibliography
• any maps, charts, diagrams, annotated illustrations or tables.

If an essay exceeds the word limit, then examiners are instructed to stop reading after 1,600 words and to base their assessment on just the first 1,600 words. Students are required to indicate the number of words when the essay is uploaded during the submission process.

The TOK essay must be the student’s own work. However, the teacher plays an important role in supporting the student during the planning and writing of their essay. Teachers are expected to explain the requirements of the task and ensure that students are familiar with the assessment instrument, provide clarifications in response to students’ questions, monitor students’ progress, and check the authenticity of the student work.

For the TOK essay, three formal recorded interactions between the student and teacher are required. These three interactions must be recorded on the TOK essay Planning and Progress Form (TK/PPF). This form is not referred to by examiners when determining the mark awarded for the essay. However, it is submitted to the IB as important evidence that steps have been taken to help ensure the authenticity of the student’s work; it also plays an important role in terms of helping to ensure that all students receive an appropriate level of support when completing their essays. The procedure for uploading the TOK Essay and forms can be found in the Diploma Programme Assessment procedures resource on the programme resource centre<.

It is the responsibility of teachers to ensure that all students understand the basic meaning and significance of concepts that relate to academic honesty, especially authenticity and intellectual property. Teachers must ensure that all student work for assessment is prepared according to the requirements and must explain clearly to students that the work must be entirely their own.

All work submitted to the IB for moderation or assessment must be authenticated by a teacher and must not include any known instances of suspected or confirmed misconduct. Each student must confirm that the work is his or her authentic work and constitutes the final version of that work. Once a student has officially submitted the final version of the work it cannot be retracted.

Examples of ways that authenticity may be checked are through discussions with the student about the content of their work, scrutiny of the style of writing compared with work known to be that of the student, scrutiny of the references cited, or the analysis of the work by a web-based plagiarism detection service.

The TOK exhibition and the TOK essay are both marked using a global impression marking approach. This means that the assessment of both tasks is envisaged as a process of holistic or global judgment rather than an analytical process of totalling the assessment of separate criteria.

The assessment instruments present five described levels of performance. These levels are to be seen as global and holistic descriptors rather than as a checklist of necessary characteristics. When marking, the aim is to find the descriptor that conveys most accurately the level attained by the student. It is not necessary for every single aspect of a level descriptor to be met for a mark in that level to be awarded.

When using the TOK assessment instruments, it is to be understood that:

• the described levels are not a checklist; it is the overall impression that is most important
• only whole numbers should be recorded; partial marks are not acceptable
• the highest level of the instruments does not imply faultless performance, and examiners and teachers should not hesitate to use the extremes if they are appropriate descriptions of the work being assessed
• teachers and examiners should not think in terms of grades, but should concentrate on identifying the appropriate level descriptor and mark
• the IB recommends that the assessment instruments be made available to students.

There are two marks available within each level of the assessment instruments. Teachers and examiners should award the upper mark if the student’s work demonstrates the qualities described in that level to a great extent—in this case, the work may be close to achieving marks in the level above. They should award the lower mark if the student’s work demonstrates the qualities described to a lesser extent—in this case, the work may be close to achieving marks in the level below.

If a piece of work seems to fall between two descriptors, teachers, moderators and examiners should re-read the driving question that underpins the global impression judgment and then read the two levels again. The level that more appropriately describes the overall holistic impression of the student’s work should be chosen. If the decision is taken to place the response in the higher of the two levels being considered, then the bottom of the two marks in that band should be awarded. If the decision is taken to place the response in the lower of the two bands being considered, then the upper mark in the band should be awarded.

The TOK exhibition is an opportunity for students to explore links between knowledge questions and the world around us. The assessment of this task is underpinned by the following single driving question.

The assessment instrument provided describes five levels of performance in response to this driving question. These levels are to be seen as holistic descriptors rather than as a checklist of characteristics.

Please note: If a student only provides images and accompanying commentaries for two objects, teachers should award a maximum of 6 marks. If a student only provides an image and accompanying commentary for one object, teachers should award a maximum of 3 marks.

The TOK essay is an opportunity for students to engage in a formal, sustained piece of writing in response to a prescribed title focused on the areas of knowledge. The assessment of this task is underpinned by the following single driving question.

The assessment of the TOK essay is underpinned by the driving question: does the student provide a clear, coherent and critical exploration of the essay title? The assessment instrument then provides five levels of performance. These levels are to be seen as holistic descriptors rather than as a checklist of necessary characteristics and it is not necessary for every single aspect of a level descriptor to be met for a mark in that level to be awarded.

November 2021 TOK essay Prescribed Title #3 – Key words and phrases

Published by author on march 15, 2021 march 15, 2021.

3. “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact” (Arthur Conan Doyle). Discuss this claim with reference to  two  areas of knowledge. 

“ an obvious fact ” – First of all, there is no clear definition or agreement as to what an “obvious fact” is.  Something that may seem obvious to a particular person or group under one set of circumstances may not seem obvious to others.  Look for areas in AOKs and real-life situations where a seemingly obvious fact can lead to an in-depth discussion of knowledge.

“ deceptive ” – An obvious fact can be deceptive in a number of ways.  For example, a fact that is widely accepted is less likely to be scrutinized. Also, something may seem obvious to a particular group of people because of links to culture, identity, nationality, occupation, etc.  The group’s belief in this obvious fact may be problematic if people assume it is true and don’t investigate their beliefs.  Sometimes though, a fact may appear to be obvious because there is a significant amount of research and evidence to back it up.  Not all obvious facts are necessarily deceptive. 

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Prescribed May 2021 IB ToK Essay Titles

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• Writing Metier

When it comes to the ToK essay, it allows the students to engage themselves in a topic that entices reflection and thinking. And just like every year, this year begins with the prescribed topics for 2021 May ToK essays.

—————

Nevertheless, if you are looking for assistance in writing a ToK essay, you are

always free to follow this link .

You can also find a list of titles for other years:

• November 2023 TOK essay prescribed titles
• May TOK essay prompts 2023
• Prescribed TOK essay titles for May 2022
• Topics for TOK essay in November 2022

In case you have strongly decided to work on the paper, first of all, make sure to check the article that describes in detail how to write a TOK essay . Secondly, below you will find a list of topics for the IB Tok Essay in the year 2021.

In this article, we will talk about the six ToK titles that were recently released and discuss the possible questions, responses, suggestions and strategies on how to construct the essay.

IB ToK Essay Titles 2021

Title 1: “Accepting knowledge claims always involves an element of trust.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. + SAMPLE

With this title, one needs to clarify and reflect the words: element of trust, involves, always, knowledge claims and acceptance. For this topic for the ToK essay, we need to start by pondering ‘at’ and ‘to’ ourselves and then attempt a proposition which address ‘what’ and ‘who’.

Title 2: Within the areas of knowledge, how can we differentiate between change and progress? Answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.

For this title, the main concepts that one needs to keep in mind is to understand the difference between ‘progress’ and ‘change’. One needs to keep in mind that when talking about change, it is a motion which is linked with time. And when it comes to progress, it is when you progress towards something.

Title 3: “Labels are a necessity in the organization of knowledge, but they also constrain our understanding.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

In this topic, you need to begin with understanding what a label is. To begin with, labels are a language which are attached to a certain property or an object which gives out information regarding the item. When you label something, you make an assertion that the thing is classified in a certain manner.

Title 4: “Statistics conceal as much as they reveal.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

You might have heard, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”. This phrase signifies the power which numbers hold, especially in the study of Human Sciences and how statistics is applied during weak arguments or to ensure that the truth is being revealed.

Title 5: “Areas of knowledge are most useful in combination with each other.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge. + SAMPLE

Taking its literal meaning, the word ‘technology’ is made from ‘techne’ and ‘logos’, two Greek words. The fusion of these two terms goes back to the 17 th century and literally, the word stands for, ‘knowing and making’. And thus, combining different things results in powerful elements.

Title 6: “Avoiding bias seems a commendable goal, but this fails to recognize the positive role that bias can play in the pursuit of knowledge.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge. + SAMPLE

The title holds the word ‘bias’ and then positively sheds light to its ‘pursuit of knowledge’. This topic reflects on the slanted view of how we look into things and how we tend to look on the other side.

Ready to handle any of the ToK essay May prescribed titles?

These are just a brief explanation of this year’s ToK essay titles. Of course, to succeed, you need to dig way deeper or ask for expert writing or editing assistance from a reliable company like Writing Metier. Our company has a separate team of professional IB ToK essay writers .

I have also written an article that explains the main advantages and disadvantages of International Baccalaureate that will be interesting for everyone who is searching for a good educational option.

Have a great one and I wish you all the best with your IB studies.

Free topic suggestions

Vasy kafidoff.

Vasyl Kafidoff is a co-founder and CEO at WritingMetier. He is interested in education and how modern technology makes it more accessible. He wants to bring awareness about new learning possibilities as an educational specialist. When Vasy is not working, he’s found behind a drum kit.

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Theory of Knowledge Essay Example 2021

Doubt and confidence contradicts each other. Doubt can be seen as fear of the unknown. Confidence is having faith in your own knowledge or having a feeling of certainty. Confidence comes first when we are certain in the credibility of the knowledge obtained, however, confidence is provoked by doubt when we become biased with the knowledge we already know. Both doubt and confidence are vital in the production of knowledge. Doubt is perceived to be negative because it can be viewed as a sign of questioning your own ability to understand concepts. knowledge are the skills and information we obtain from our experience with the world. The prescribed title chosen is, “We know with confidence only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases.” This statement implies that when the knowledge we have is limited, we are confident with our conclusion because we tend to overlook red flags within concepts and theories when little is known, but, when more knowledge is obtained, doubt arises and makes us suspicious of our own knowledge showing that confidence does not ensure that the knowledge is applied correctly. To address this prescribed title, it is important to discuss the importance of doubt’s role in the production of knowledge by implementing Areas of Knowledge such as Religious Knowledge Systems and Natural Science along with using Ways of Knowing such as faith and emotion.

TOK Essay Example 2021

As humans, in the early stages of our lives we are taught preconceived notions and beliefs by the people around us and from the observations we see. Overtime we become confident in what we know and can develop a one track mind, however, this is challenged once we expand our environments. We begin to absorb new knowledge from our daily encounters in our schools, workplaces, churches (in our faith) and from the world around us. From this recurring way of knowing we begin to see an intricate web of new pathways and alternatives. Doubt begins to drive our curious nature. This raises the question: Does increased doubt emulate curiosity? Doubt allows us to question the world around us in which allows our curiosity to flow. This is so because curiosity is wanting to find the answer to something, but in order to do so, something has to be questioned or doubted first. This is evident from when I lived in Jamaica in a christian household. I attended church, went to bible studies, and performed in praise and worships and was thought to never question God. Even though I was active within my religion, I did not read the bible, I just listened to the short stories and scriptures that my pastor and family told me without questioning their credibility. Once I moved to America, I began to live with my grandmother, who is very religious and it was required of me to read the bible everyday. Daily I read and I learnt more about my religion. I began to question why did God gave up his only son? If God has the ability to create life why did he not make everyone good? Why do the Ten Commandments dictate the way I live? The more I learned about God and about my religion the more I questioned the existing knowledge I had about my religion. I began to question the “how” and the “why” and the more curious I became. Doubt emulates curiosity because my own doubt questioned my inability to understand concepts within my faith and I was curious to find answers.

To differentiate, doubt does not emulate curiosity, it is of human nature to want to understand the relationship between cause and effect in order to make few less errors. According to PRI (Public Radio International) studies using MRI scans have shown that humans are born with curiosity and that they exhibit two kinds of curiosity from a young age. One kind is perceptual curiosity, this is what we feel when we observe something and it does not align with what we thought we knew. The second is epistemic curiosity, this is our love of acquiring knowledge and is experienced when we anticipate a reward in form of the knowledge we gain. Curiosity is a necessity when acquiring knowledge and we have been doing so since our birth, before we knew what doubt is or what it felt like. Our Curiosity is inherited from our childhood and our doubt was developed once we started to understand our emotions.This allowed us to stop believing in our information because we had distrust within our emotions in which increased doubt. Curiosity is apart of human development, It serves an evolutionary purpose, it is how information is received from infancy through adulthood. For example as an infant we cannot fend for ourselves, an adult is in charge of our survival. Therefore, we are given time to focus on learning and discovering information to form our own ideas.

Want More TOK Essay Examples?

“Ignorance does not result from what we do not know! Ignorance results from what we think we do know- but don’t! Most ignorant people are, in fact, quite certain.” – Richard Rohr. Being ignorant is when one is unaware or lacking information and can stem from being overly confident with the information one has. This leads to overseeing the red flags within our information due to our certainty. This begs the question: “Does lack of doubt encourages ignorance?” Lack of doubt does encourage ignorance because it promotes intellectual complacency when faced with opposing point of views. Ignorance is encouraged when we defend the little knowledge we obtained and are cornered with a contradiction of our validation in which we try to defend our certainty and ego. This is evident within the science community Before the scientific community advanced technologically, they felt confident in the little they knew, but as technology advanced, the more evidence became provable and knowledge expanded. However, parts of the community defended their old evidence. For example, before modern astronomy was introduced many people believed that the Earth lied in the center of the universe and everything revolved around us because of the Geocentric model. However, this was challenged when Nicolaus Copernicus formulated the Heliocentric model that placed the sun at the center of the universe. His model was said to lack provable evidence and that it went against the holy scriptures. However this was later debunked by astronomer Galileo Galilei when he improved the telescope’s magnification and saw moons orbiting around Jupiter, confirming Copernicus theory that celestial bodies rotate each other. Galileo findings did not convince anyone, the church and the science community mocked his intelligence and was put on house arrest because the people and the science community believed that the geocentric model was correct due to the sun circling earth changing night to day. The people’s lack of doubt encouraged ignorance because they were stuck in their old ways of understanding and would not attempt to expand their knowledge and open their minds.

To contrast, ignorance is encouraged with exaggerated confidence because it can lead to failure. It is not encouraged by lack of doubt because ignorance is hidden within our lack of doubt, therefore ignorance is unaware while doubt is aware but fails to accept it because doubting something means you are open to new ideas.

TOK Essay Sample

Doubt makes us open minded, it asks us question that others might not, in which furthers our knowledge. This raises the question: “To what extent does doubt influence the production of knowledge?” Doubt influences the production of knowledge to a greater extent by presenting questions which are subsequently answered through inquiry. This is true in natural science when empirical experiments are conducted to accept or reject a hypothesis. The purpose is to develop better questions because doubt has always been present in science. Constant repeated eliminations of older theories have occurred and replaced because doubt questioned their validity. When Nicolaus Copernicus doubted the Geocentric model, he conducted his own experiments to develop the Heliocentric model that led to the development of modern astronomy. This is a strategy of skepticism presented by doubt, it senses the validity and assumes inquiry within a data or theory. This increases doubt in which increases knowledge because if one does not doubt what is already known what motivation will be present to learn more. Doubt also influences knowledge by forcing people to change their personal knowledge to shared knowledge. It questions your known knowledge and motivates one to research, leading to new knowledge that is shared. Researching for my extended essay, I did not know a lot about Psychology. The question asked:“To what extent does the stigma of homosexuals in American society lead to mental health disorders among the LGBTQ community?” I knew chemicals within the brain influenced one’s sexual orientation but I did not know what their role in the brain was. I began to doubt the knowledge I had, it motivated me to do more research. The new knowledge I gained became personal knowledge but was shared once my paper was read or when I talked about it.

To differentiate, doubt influences the production of knowledge to a lesser extent because doubt places a limit on what an individual believes, while confidence does not. Confidence does not hinder someone’s capability of understanding, it drives their motivation to research because it allows one to apply application faster.

Doubt and confidence are important when gaining knowledge but accepting doubt is the key to knowledge because it shows that one is open to new ideas. Although it is the voice of an uncertain conscious, it is not to be viewed as negative but as a way of knowing because doubt allows all knowledge to be researched and apparent.

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TikTok’s Boss Goes From Reserved Tech Exec to Met Gala Chair

With the company facing a ban in the U.S., Shou Chew is expected to join Zendaya, Bad Bunny and Anna Wintour on the red carpet.

By Jacob Bernstein ,  Madison Malone Kircher and Sapna Maheshwari

Although the Met Gala serves as a branding event for Vogue, it has long accepted sponsorships from the tech giants that have threatened the very survival of legacy media publications.

Jeff Bezos , the Amazon founder, appeared as the ball’s honorary chair in 2012. Four years later, when Apple was a Met Gala sponsor, its chief executive, Tim Cook , showed up in tux and tails. And Instagram supplied cash in 2022.

The 2024 event is sponsored, in part, by TikTok, the social media goliath whose future looks murkier than that of Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, The New Yorker and other magazines, which has laid off employees and shuttered or sold off some of its publications in recent years.

TikTok found itself in jeopardy last month, when President Biden signed a bill that gave ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, nine months to sell off the app or face a ban in the United States. In the wake of that political firestorm, Shou Chew, the 41-year-old chief executive of TikTok, is expected to join dozens of celebrity guests at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan on Monday evening.

He was selected by Anna Wintour as an honorary chair for the benefit, which raises tens of millions of dollars each year for the museum’s Costume Institute. Ms. Wintour, the global editorial director of Condé Nast and the editor in chief of Vogue, has run the event for a quarter of a century, using her sense of celebrity and fashion synergy to create a splashy showcase of some of the world’s most influential people, a group that has come to include more social media influencers and fewer one-name stars (Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna) in recent years.

TikTok may be loathed by Washington lawmakers who have raised concerns about the Chinese government’s access to its 170 millions users in the United States, but it remains an undeniable cultural force in American life , especially among Gen Z. The app is also a fashion force, and the Met Gala provides many TikTok creators with plenty of fodder. That makes the little-known Mr. Chew at least as powerful as the much more recognizable co-chairs of this year’s party — Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth and Ms. Wintour herself.

Along with TikTok, the luxury fashion brand Loewe is a sponsor; its creative director, Jonathan Anderson, will serve alongside Mr. Chew as an honorary chair.

TikTok declined to reveal its financial contribution to the star-studded event. In previous years, a sponsor is known to have kicked in roughly $5 million .

Mr. Bezos and Mr. Cook were known quantities when they greeted the likes of Rihanna and Beyoncé at previous Met Galas. Mr. Chew, on the other hand, is likely to go unrecognized by most of the gawkers who line up behind the barricades along Fifth Avenue, many of whom may be making TikTok videos on their phones.

A Charm Offensive

Starting in 2022, when U.S. lawmakers were turning up the heat on TikTok, the company changed its public relations strategy. Instead of keeping a low profile, it embarked on a charm offensive, with the fresh-faced Shou (pronounced “show”) Chew front and center.

As TikTok plowed millions into its lobbying efforts, Mr. Chew met with the heads of think tanks in Washington and global leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. At The New York Times’s DealBook conference in November 2022, he fielded questions about national security concerns while wearing jeans, a casual blue blazer over a white T-shirt, and white sneakers that looked fresh out of the box.

His expected appearance at the Met Gala — once a staid affair for New York blue bloods that has become an East Coast Oscars on Ms. Wintour’s watch — can be viewed as part of TikTok’s shift in how it presents itself to the public. But this time around, instead of sitting down with those who have influence over matters of policy, the TikTok chief will be standing on a red carpet before a squadron of photographers.

Mr. Chew, who declined through a TikTok representative to be interviewed for this article, grew up in Singapore. That is where he has his main residence with his wife, Vivian Kao, 42, a onetime Goldman Sachs associate, and their three children. In 2021, the couple spent more than $60 million on a house in the Queen Astrid Park area of the island nation, according to The Business Times of Singapore.

The family is intensely private. A rare glimpse of Ms. Kao and one of their children appeared in a video that Mr. Chew posted on TikTok from a recent Taylor Swift concert at Singapore National Stadium.

Mr. Chew has said that his father worked in construction and that his mother was a bookkeeper. After attending one of Singapore’s top secondary schools, he completed two years of mandatory national service in the Singapore Armed Forces, where he was an officer. From there, he enrolled at University College London.

After graduating in 2006 with a degree in economics, he took a job in the London office of Goldman Sachs. That was where he met Nathalie du Preez, who remains a friend of his.

“We sat on the same floor, and he was walking past,” Ms. du Preez recalled in a phone interview.

In an early conversation, they found that they had both applied to Harvard Business School. They took coffee breaks together at Leonidas Chocolates around the corner from the office.

When they arrived at Harvard in the fall of 2008, Ms. du Preez and Mr. Chew shared a ride with a group of people bound for Ikea. They were just two of the many students on the lookout for reasonably priced home décor items.

“He’s come a long way since then,” she said.

Ms. du Preez and several other Harvard Business School classmates interviewed for this article recalled Mr. Chew as someone who was funny, although they could not recall a specific funny thing he had said. They also agreed that he was razor-sharp, but offered no particular examples of his acuity.

They described him as curious about pop culture and sports, saying he was a fan of Manchester United and recalling that he had attended a David Guetta show at the Roxy in Boston. They mentioned that he liked video games, including the soccer game FIFA , and noted that he was the tidiest of his roommates.

Mr. Chew met the woman who would become his wife, Ms. Kao, when they were both at Harvard Business School. A graduate of Wellesley College, she had grown up in Bethesda, Md., and is Taiwanese American.

Mr. Chew and Ms. Kao found themselves in business school as the financial crisis arrived. “We called it the ‘just in time’ admissions class, because the markets crashed that fall,” Caren Kelleher, a fellow classmate, said in an interview.

Although it was a time when big banks were failing, some of Mr. Chew’s fellow business students were surprised when he took a summer internship at Facebook, rather than going into finance. The social media company was only five years old and years away from going public.

His classmates later realized he had made a prescient choice, according to Jean Abillama, who lived across the street from Mr. Chew in Cambridge, Mass. “He was seeing this big wave of tech and e-commerce, the tech wave coming to light,” she said.

Master’s degree in hand, he joined DST Global, a venture capital firm led by Yuri Milner, a Russian billionaire who was on his way to becoming one of the most important private investors in Silicon Valley companies . Mr. Chew served as Mr. Milner’s point man in China, where he helped lead investments in Alibaba and the Chinese ride-sharing service DiDi.

During that time, Mr. Milner provided a reported $10 million in financing to a news-aggregation app founded by the entrepreneur Zhang Yiming, who developed a rapport with Mr. Chew. The app would become ByteDance. Mr. Chew also helped with DST Global’s investment in Xiaomi, one of China’s largest phone manufacturers.

In 2013, Mr. Chew and Ms. Kao were married. Two years later, Mr. Chew left DST to become the chief financial officer of Xiaomi, which he helped take public in 2018.

He Got the Job

Mr. Chew was named the chief financial officer of ByteDance in March 2021. He ascended to the top TikTok job two months later. In November of that year, he stepped down as ByteDance’s chief financial officer.

TikTok’s previous chief executive, Kevin Mayer , had resigned after less than four months on the job, citing the increasing pressure put on the company by the Trump administration because of its ties to China.

The opposition of U.S. lawmakers did not abate during the presidency of Joseph R. Biden Jr. As Mr. Chew worked to keep lawmakers at bay, he found time to attend the 2022 Met Gala with Ms. Kao. He went all-out formal, in traditional white tie and tails; she wore a resplendent floral-patterned gown.

Nowadays, Ms. Kao runs Tamarind Global, a family office that, according to its website, “manages investments and philanthropy” for a “Singaporean family.” Its shareholders include Mr. Chew and a trust linked to Mr. Chew and Ms. Kao, according to public records.

There has been debate about whether Mr. Chew — who travels with a small security detail — is the controlling force at TikTok. Company sources have told The Times that major strategic decisions were handled by Mr. Yiming , among others.

Mr. Chew displayed a sense of fun in his TikTok handle — @shou.time — which riffs on the pronunciation of his first name. But the account did not have much of a following until March 2023 , when he was grilled by Congress.

Under aggressive questioning , Mr. Chew was made to repeat that he was a citizen of Singapore, not China. He went on to stress that TikTok was not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and noted that his wife is an American, telling his questioners, “By the way, she was just born a few miles away from here.”

That was the appearance that catapulted him into public consciousness. Before the hearing, he had fewer than 20,000 TikTok followers. He now has 3.9 million.

Users posted clips highlighting belligerent questions from lawmakers. A number of TikTokers even called Mr. Chew “zaddy,” a slang term that refers to an older, attractive man.

On Nov. 8, 2023, TikTok announced that it would serve as “the lead sponsor” of this year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit, the formal name of the Met Gala. Days after the announcement, Vogue Singapore published a rare sit-down interview with Mr. Chew.

He was photographed in Louis Vuitton jeans and a velvet Brunello Cucinelli blazer, and he spoke benignly about his mandatory service in Singapore’s armed forces in “the jungles of Brunei” and doing diaper duty for a third time. “There’s quite an age gap between this kid and the previous kid,” he said in the interview. “My wife and I are relearning everything, like changing diapers.”

Along with other top tech executives, Mr. Chew was called before Congress again in January. He stressed that he did not live in China and said he was not a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

While turning down interview requests from news organizations digging into TikTok’s Chinese ties, Mr. Chew gave an interview to another Condé Nast publication, Wired, during a TikTok music festival in Mesa, Ariz., in December 2023.

The Wired article largely kept the focus on TikTok’s pop-culture footprint while seeming to defend it against its American critics by arguing that “a thinly veiled anti-Chinese xenophobia has become a reliable part of the U.S. political playbook.” It also included an advance plug for Mr. Chew’s appearance at the Met Gala.

“It’s very cultural,” Mr. Chew told Wired. “Fashion is an incredibly important part of TikTok. Louis Vuitton has 12 million followers on our app.” (The fashion house now has more than 13 million TikTok followers.)

Ms. du Preez, the Goldman Sachs colleague and Harvard classmate, said she was not surprised that Mr. Chew would be interested in teaming up with Vogue and Ms. Wintour, particularly at a time when the company he leads is trying to show that it is not controlled by China.

“The Met Gala is an incredibly well-followed evening,” she said. “In terms of making friends in the U.S., I think it would make sense to do that, and everyone who is going will have a TikTok account.”

Not that she expected him to pick out a memorable ensemble.

“I have no doubt Vivian will dress him in something beautiful,” Ms. du Preez said. “And at this point he can get a lot of advice from anyone about what to wear. I’m sure Anna Wintour can give him tips.”

For the record, Mr. Chew is slated to wear something from Ralph Lauren , the American designer whose fondness for red, white and blue has made him a natural choice to outfit U.S. Olympics teams in patriotic garb.

Ryan Mac contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.

Jacob Bernstein is a reporter for the Styles desk. In addition to writing profiles of fashion designers, artists and celebrities, he has focused much of his attention on L.G.B.T. issues, philanthropy and the world of furniture design. More about Jacob Bernstein

Madison Malone Kircher is a Times reporter covering internet culture. More about Madison Malone Kircher

Sapna Maheshwari reports on TikTok, technology and emerging media companies. She has been a business reporter for more than a decade. Contact her at [email protected] . More about Sapna Maheshwari

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