English 210: First Essay Assignment Sage Mudir Pereira Student ID#6416942

The article Living in Tokyo Time by Lynnika Butler is a well written article. It is a well written article because the author structures it in a way that makes it easy for the readers to understand and uses the technique of comparison and contrast to support her argument. In addition, she uses definitions and examples to strengthen her argument. The author structures the entire article in a way that makes it easy for the reader to understand. First of all, she clearly states her thesis statement in the first sentence of the article, which is, Its fair to say that Japanese people are unbelievably busy. This clearly defines her main argument of the article that is time and how the Japanese value it, which is sacrificing their private time to society in return for invaluable social goods, and also making the reader know exactly what they are going to be reading about. Secondly, she organizes her paragraph in a way that makes it easy for the reader to understand and does not leave any open question or loose ends, for example in the second paragraph she says, Why doesnt this cradle-to-grave, manic scheduling bother them? although she does not answer it right away, she led to an answer, well written and clear at the last

paragraph, which is that the time they sacrifice they do it in return for invaluable goods such as: National health insurance, a wonderful train system, sushi, the two thousand temples of Kyoto and rich traditional culture.

Another point that makes this article well argued is the techniques of comparison and contrast that Lynnika Butler uses to support her argument. She uses comparison and contrast to compare similarities and dissimilarities between two different group, the Japanese's and the Westerners, for example in the paragraph 3 she has a clear comparison and contrast that made it clear for the reader the difference and similarity of both groups In japan, time is measured in the same hours and minutes and days as anywhere else.. here she starts the sentence with a comparison, saying how both groups have the same amount of time, but then she finishes the sentence with the first part of the contrast in reference to the Japanese , But it is experienced as a fundamentally different phenomenon and starts the next sentence with the other part of the contrast,In the west, we save time, spend time, invest time, even kill time-all of which implies that it belongs to us in the first place. making clear the different views and use of time of the two different groups thus supporting her argument on time. Lastly, Lynnika Butler uses the techniques of definition and example to strengthen her argument. In her article, several times she uses japanese phrases as example and defines them so the reader could understand what they mean, two examples of phrases she uses are Shikata ga nai which means -Nothing you can do about it- and also says Chotto Hima Morau meaning -I am going to receive a little free time-. These phrases she uses is not only to give the meaning of a foreign phrase, but it helps her to demonstrate that she actually was there and the she really experienced the Japanese's culture and language making her qualified of writting an article of such topic of the Japanese culture. These phrases also help to enrich the text with Japanese culture and gives the reader a chance to experience what the Japanese actually have to say about their time distribution and scheduling

of their own life, and their attitude towards it, all of this making this article a lot more credible and strengthening her argument. To conclude, Lynnika Butler structures her article in a way to make it easy for the reader to understand and read the article smoothly with a complete understanding of it, she uses techniques of comparison and contrast helping the readers notice the similarities and dissimilarities of these two different group, Japanese and Westerners, thus helping the readers understand that she is talking about and supporting her argument and lastly she uses the technique of definition and example, by using japanese phrases and example of what japanese have to say about their opinion of time, making the article more credible and thus strengthening her argument. Therefore saying all this above, makes me come to the conclusion that this article is a very well written article.