Structures: To Break Or Not To Break

As a child I was a voracious reader. One would imagine that children like me would be most likely to break out of molds and tread new paths. But I grew up in a competitive playground and knew that I had to make sure I remained in the safety of good grades, even if that required giving up the liberties of academic risk-taking. Today, we are here to discuss if we can simultaneously adhere to and push the boundaries of what is taught to us. We are not here to establish that the five-paragraph essay, one such controversial institution, is the holy word; neither are we here to argue our way up to the throne and have the five-paragraph reclaim its position. We are here to embark on an insightful journey that Kimberly Smith takes us on in her article “In Defense of The Five-Paragraph Essay.” Most importantly, as a student who has long struggled with whether to play safe or to take risks, I want to explore when and where it seems reasonable to leave the guiding hand of the five-paragraph and hold a pen on my own.

In my family, I am the first English-speaking person. It is considered a venerable quality in my country; I think the colonial period left such feelings in us. My father was a journalist who led a communist party and wrote bluntly about what went on behind the curtains in the political arena. He knew the value of a good education all too well, and left his cherished writing career after I was born — it pays meagerly in Bangladesh — and started a business to afford my “high-class” schooling. I found myself in a posh school where the English…