Trying to resurrection old Illustrator skills for simple eps changes

Between 1997 and 2000 I learned a moderate amount about how to use Adobe Illustrator. I haven't used it in years, but now I need to make some tweaks to a royalty-free eps I purchased that will eventually be converted to a Web page image (gif or jpg).
The problem is that I've forgotten a couple of the most basic techniques that I'm likely to use in fine tuning this image for final use. First example: It's a plain black image of a tree with roots and leaves. The bottom left root is not realistic because it ends in a blunt blob instead of tapering down to a point like real tree roots do as they enter the ground. I zoomed in on the area, touched the image with the pointer to reveal the points along the vector line where I can grab a local segment of that part of the image and move it. From what I remembered, when I grabbed that point and pulles it down and to the left, it should have pulled the point itself and the two line segments on either side down into more of a point. Instead, it pulled the entire lower third of the root, so I just got a longer blob. Apparently I've forgotten one of the details of how the pointer tool(s) work. If it's relevant, I'm using Illustrator CS.
I'll take either a specific tip about this or direction to a good online tutorial to refresh the skills related to this project.

With the white pointer tool ( Direct Select Tool) select the path and handles should show.
It is a curved handle they look the same as angular handles
Under the Pen tool there is a tool to convert a curved anchor to an angular anchor and vice verse. Called the Convert Anchor Tool
Click the anchor point with that tool and now drag it you.
You can as use this tool to click on the end of a handle so you can control one side of an anchor point so a curve can end in a point. Or hold the option (alt) key while moving one of the handles for the same result.
Then move the bottom right anchor and you get this
hope this gives you something to work with

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