During our final course sessions, we are allocating significant time to essay writing skills. Today, in response to the writing exercises I prepared based on our study of "Heart of Darkness" Nina first completed an essay on the author's use of foreshadowing . In this exercise, we addressed the need to identify a controlling idea for the essay and to incorporate this idea into a thesis within the first paragraph. We then completed our second essay on the illusion vs reality motif in the novel as illustrated in the author's depiction of women. Again, we worked on formatting a controlling idea and drafting a first sentence that broadly addresses the question and yet introduces the point of the essay. As Nina completed paragraphs ,we worked on the skill of self-editing , sentence placement, and word choice . Additionally, I provided instruction on using the first paragraph to provide some sense of a definition of what constituted an illusion and what constituted the reality that the narrator encountered . From there ,Nina was able to compose a second paragraph that explained the significance and import of the illusory world where the author suggests women do and must continue to reside. We then started a third essay on the theme of restraint, societal vs internal ,and discussed restraint's role in the maintenance of an orderly civilized society. To assist Nina in getting started,I again modeled some broad first sentences that could form a foundation or controlling idea for the essay. We left off discussing how to combine sentences in the first sentences Nina drafted.