When writing a literary analysis
Use the persusive essay pattern

Writing a literary analysis should be no more difficult than writing any other persuasive-pattern essays.

A literary (or "critical analysis") is organized by the same pattern of thesis and support that is used for 90% of college
writing and workplace writing.

Comparing two sample essay outlines for five-paragraph essays written using my trademark writing skeleton™ format will make the similarities obvious.

Sample essay outline: non-literary

Here's a writing skeleton™ for a hypothetical non-literary essay:

Thesis: Computers can hurt you.(The body paragraphs prove the point by showing how computers can hurt you.)

Body paragraph 1 topic sentence: Computers can hurt you because computers can cause eyestrain.

Body paragraph 2 topic sentence: Computers can hurt you because computers can cause repetitive stress injury to hands.

Body paragraph 3 topic sentence: Computers can hurt you because computers can cause neck and back strain.

Sample essay outline: literary

Here's a writing skeleton™ for a hypothetical literary analysis:

Thesis: Brilliant Author uses nature to underscore his theme that life is a cycle. (The body paragraphs show reasons why the writer believes that thesis to be true.)

Body paragraph 1 topic sentence: Brilliant Author uses natural settings to underscore his theme that life is a cycle.

Body paragraph 2 topic sentence: Brilliant Author uses nature metaphors to underscore his theme that life is a cycle.

Body paragraph 1 topic sentence: Brilliant Author uses nature symbolically to underscore his theme that life is a cycle.

Paragraph development

Students would develop each body paragraph following the standard expository paragraph format when writing a literary analysis from the outline.

The beauty of that expository paragraph format for literary analysis work is that it limits the amount of source material a student can include.

Keeping borrowed material to a minimum is extremely important for college-bound students. Limiting the amount of borrowing encourages students to think and reduces the likelihood of plagiarism.

Most of the colleges at which I have taught limit to 20-25% of the total word count the amount that can be borrowed material. Quotation is typically limited to about 10% of the total paper.

If you teach students to write using the persuasive essay pattern, you won't have to teach them a separate method for writing a literary analysis.

I'm not opposed to doing less work; are you?