Just a quick question on the TOK essay.

[jmartin]

when I write any essay/paper, saying "I think..." or "I believe that..." is not acceptable, what about in the TOK Essays, because are they not BASICALLY personal answers?

[Panserborne]

[quote name='jmartin' post='41798' date='Mar 27 2009, 06:49 AM']when I write any essay/paper, saying "I think..." or "I believe that..." is not acceptable, what about in the TOK Essays, because are they not BASICALLY personal answers?[/quote]

Yup, use it, because remember a part of the criteria is personal response. But I wouldn't over-do the personal pronouns, or else it becomes, in my experience, painful and hard to read. (You need a little bit of professionalism!)

[DeStijl]

I wholly agree with the above poster. If you're planning on receiving a decent mark, you absolutely MUST include personal experiences. They'll deduct marks for a "detached" writing style in which you incorportate absolutely nothing that pertains directly to yourself. It's a strange concept for an essay...but c'est la vie, I suppose.

Maintain a fine balance between being personal and impersonal, though. Don't go nuts and be all, "Me this" and "Me that", because an essay necessitates a degree of formality. However, like I said, this is a very bizarre essay that breaks the "NEVER USE 'I' IN AN ESSAY" rule. Thus, take advantage of it, but don't abuse it.

[Sandwich]

It is possible to put in personal experiences without using 'I', though, if you REALLY dislike writing informal essays (I know I do, I keep worrying that I'm straying too far from formality). Just give examples like any person would, making sure that they're very tight examples which obviously pertain to a particular person.

[ibislife]

Just use "I." We've looked at many past essays during class. The ones that I considered good, without having looked at the marking criteria, normally scored B-C... I panicked when I realized I'd have to include informality, but attempted to do so in the final edition that I wrote the night before deadline. It felt like the title should have been rewritten into something like: "Me and my fantastic intellectual journey through the high school world of unspecified philosophy." I got over it pretty quickly, though.