ToK Writing Guidelines

 

 

ToK is a course about the nature of thought and how we think.  One of the benefits of the course is that it gives us the chance to develop our ideas, and our capacity to explore ideas-our own and others’-critically.

 

We will write a lot in ToK.  A significant fraction of your grade will depend on your ability to express your ideas on paper through diagrams, short paragraphs, essays, journal entries, and the like.

 

But wait a minute, you say in a panicky voice, I can’t  think when I write!  And why can’t we do all that orally and save all that trouble?  Can’t we have a debate instead? What’s wrong with just having an argument?

 

Absolutely nothing.  Discussion, debate, and out-and-out argument are fine ways to explore and extend our ideas, and we’ll have a lot of these in this course.  But part of the pleasure of an argument is that it’s easy; we can rely on our expressions, our wild gestures of the hand, the persuasiveness of our personalities and the assumptions of other people (plus any number of sneaky tricks) to fill in the gaps and gloss over the messy bits our arguments often have.  But when you write down your ideas, you are better able to ask yourself, Does this really make sense? Have I left anything out? Is this what I meant to say? Writing our ideas down makes us accountable for them, and forces us to examine them carefully for flaws-and, moreover, allows other people to do the same.  That’s one of the reasons we dislike writing so much: it doesn’t let us get away with much. 

 

Also, one thing that arguing doesn’t do is allow us much opportunity for honest reflection -that is, although discussion gives other people a chance to respond to and challenge our ideas, arguments move fast and are often competitive and so doesn’t give us much of a chance to challenge ourselves. Questioning our deeply-held, cherished beliefs can be difficult, especially in the course of a heated discussion. 

 

Finally, although you may be perfectly content with your muddy thoughts-after all, you know what you mean-the rest of the world will expect you to articulate your ideas both orally and in written form.

 

So, this course will give you lots of opportunity to develop your ideas and practice articulating them in peace and privacy, at your own pace and in your own way-in short, in writing. 

 

But wait a minute, you protest, this isn’t supposed to be an English course!

 

And indeed it isn’t.  In a writing course style counts, along with spelling, grammar and the other niceties of the writer’s art.  What we are after in ToK is clear, plain writing that explains what you think as simply as possible.  Nothing fancy.  Your grammar needs to be good enough to express your ideas clearly and unambiguously.  Your style should be straightforward and unadorned; no bonus marks for cramming in long words that only confuse everybody.  Some assignments will ask for brief, point-form answers; others may require something longer. 

 

Here are some examples.

 

 

Assignment 1, On Belief.

 

List 3 things that you believe.

 

I believe that:

1. I ate cereal for breakfast
2. my brother is a pest
3. there is life on other planets
4. my mother loves me

 

That’s four things.  Other than that, excellent.

 

 

 

Assignment 2, On Belief and Dogmatic Belief

 

Briefly describe one thing that your believe.  Is this a belief that you have challenged? Has anyone else challenged your belief?  For you, is this a dogmatically-held belief?

 

I believe that material things exist.  This is a belief that I would not normally challenge, in fact I have never seriously challenged it.  This belief forms part of the way that I see the world. For that matter I can’t even understand how (or why) anybody would seriously suggest that the things I can see and touch do not exist.

 

Actually, now that I really think about it, the whole question seems sort of circular to me:  material things are the things that exist, and therefore material things must exist.  Or something like that.

 

Because I can’t seriously challenge my belief in the existence of material things, (I can’t even imagine a world in which my belief would not be true), and mostly because I’m pretty sure that everybody else must think the same way I do on this, I would describe my belief in the existence of material things as a dogmatic belief.

 

Great job.  You addressed the question thoroughly and thoughtfully, and your answer makes sense.

 

Here’s another student’s response to the same question:

 

Webster’s New College Dictionary defines dogma as, “A belief held is such a way as to be unquestioned or unquestionable.”  I do not really know what I think about that.  I think dogmatic beliefs are unreasonable but very human.  Humans are like that.  I believe that I think, therefore I am. That’s a dogmatic belief, for me and for many others.  As already stated before, humans have many dogmatic beliefs.

 

Wait a minute. This makes no sense, and it doesn’t answer the question.  Who cares what Webster’s New College Dictionary thinks?  What matters is what you think. Take another look at the question, figure out what your ideas are and explain them simply. And please be very careful to attribute ideas to their author, in this case Descartes.  In any case, “I think therefore I am,” was a proof of Descartes’, and is not an example of a dogmatic belief.

 

 

Writing clearly takes practice, and thinking clearly is even tougher.  But here’s a hint: if your writing seems muddled and confused, it’s probably because your thinking is too. In ToK we will use clear writing as a tool for developing clear thoughts.  Other tools such as concept maps, outlines, brainstorms and informal discussion can be immensely helpful, so don’t forget to use them.

 

Rubric for an in-class or out of class essay.  Rubrics for projects can be found on the project pages.

 

	4	3	2	1
Thesis	My thesis statement was clear and answered the question.	My thesis statement was pretty clear and was related to the question.	My thesis statement was a bit vague and/or off topic.	I had no obvious thesis statement.
Arguments	I presented many strong arguments in favor of my thesis	I presented some good arguments in favor of my thesis	I presented weak or insufficient arguments to support my thesis.	I presented no real arguments.
Presentation	My writing was clear with almost no grammar and spelling mistakes.	My writing was usually clear with a few grammar and spelling mistakes.	My writing was sometimes hard to follow.	My writing was unclear and filled with grammar and spelling mistakes.
Examples	I presented numerous relevant examples from  my readings and class discussion.	I presented some relevant examples from my readings and class discussion, but could have done more to back up my arguments.	I presented a few relevant examples from  my readings and class discussion.	I presented no relevant examples from my readings and class discussion.