Certainly interest in the essay form has exploded in recent years: The popularity of Eula Biss’ “On Immunity” and Leslie Jamison’s “The Empathy Exams” shows a renewed focus on the ...

So the essay is the form in which we ask what we know. All of literature asks this, to varying degrees, but it’s why the essay gets up in the morning, why it descends into the mines and comes up ...

When students think the five-paragraph form is the only acceptable way to write an essay, it can be paralyzing and creatively-stifling, which leads me to my primary concern with the form.