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 ...

In the fall, I taught English 366: The Essay at Lake Forest College, a writing workshop devoted to the study of the essay as a unique genre. We were not midway through the first class meeting when ...

Bottom line: the five-paragraph essay’s inherent prioritization of structure over style can have long-term damaging effects on students who never learn to move beyond it, but teaching the form ...