How should you structure an ELAT essay?

I have often found it helpful to think in groups of threes when structuring an essay: three main paragraphs, with three sub-points in each paragraph. In the ELAT, the examiners are looking for students to 'compare and contrast' two passages of text in 'interesting' ways. I would break this down and consider two points of comparison between the texts to write about in the first and second paragraph, and then discuss a distinct point of difference in the final paragraph. This 'contrast' can then become the main turning point in the development of your argument. Then, within each paragraph, you should introduce the overarching paragraph point, before developing three sub-points that hone in on the language of the two texts - using quotations and exact literary terms - and offering a single-line conclusion to sum up. Do this three times, bookending the three paragraphs with an introduction - that sets out what you are going to look at in the two texts - and a conclusion - that both summarieses your argument and, perhaps, offers up one more open-ended observation about the passages that has not already been discussed in the main body of the essay.