Using TWIST as a Reading Strategy

1. Using TWIST as a Reading Strategy “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

2. TWIST • T = Tone • W= Word Choice • I = Imagery • S = Syntax or Style • T = Theme

3. TONE : The tone of a passage is connected to the author’s feelings toward the subject. Look for specific, descriptive, and emotional language. Quotation Question? Are there any clues which help the reader determine the tone? Look at the words the author uses. • “ But if any shifting motion caused her to turn pale there was the mark again, a crimson stain upon the snow, in what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful distinctness.”

4. WORD CHOICE: This refers to the specific words of clusters of words in the selection that are loaded with connotation, associations, or emotional impact. • Quotation: “He was pale as death, anxious and absorbed, and hung over the furnace as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid which it was distilling should be the draught of immortal happiness or misery.” • Find specific words or clusters of words that give connotation, association, or emotional impact.

5. IMAGERY: Imagery refers to sense impressions created by the writer. They may include the five senses of sound, touch, smell, taste, or sight. • Quotation “The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould.” • Personification, similes or metaphors, and allusions help to create imagery. • What helps to create a picture in this quotation?

6. STYLE: Style refers to the author's characteristic use of language and the tools of a writer: figurative language, point of view, literary techniques, punctuation, etc. • Quotation “ Had she been less beautiful, -- if Envy's self could have found aught else to sneer at, -- he might have felt his affection heightened by the prettiness of this mimic hand…” • Does the author have any characteristic style which adds to the interpretation?

7. THEME: Theme concerns the meaning of the passage, the insight, both particular and universal, that an author has to offer about life itself and has to do with the overall effect or impact of a piece of writing. • Quotation “The momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present.” • This is the core of the work and the reason for being. • What message does the author present in the passage?