Mechanisms are the true guts of organic chemistry and practicing them is the best way to become a card-carrying organic chemist. A good mechanism will gracefully show you how a reaction is happening, where is it happening and, with practice, it will allow you to figure out why a reaction is happening. A good mechanism:

1) Shows only 1 step at a time 2) Never involves more than three separate molecules (statistically impossible!) 3) Shows your arrow(s) moving from the nucleophile (relatively negative atom/space) to the electrophile (relatively positive atom/space)

If your mechanism breaches any of those guidelines then it is almost certainly incorrect. Mechanisms take practice and you should write them out as much as possible to become better at them rather than just staring at them on a reference sheet. Kinesthetic practice is a must! If you want an A in this class it is imperative to practice them.

For this discussion I want you to write down the mechanism, step by step, for a nucleophilic addition of your choosing. You could do an aldol condensation, a Claisen condensation, a hydride reduction or really any of your choosing as long as they include at least 2 steps and involve the attack of a carbonyl. To get credit for this assignment you must:

1) Write the correct mechanism on a piece of paper or a tablet and include an image for your submission. 2) Submit the image to the discussion forum with your name written next to your submission with the date in the same handwriting as the mechanism (no copied internet images!). 3) Reply to at least one other person's mechanism to critique its execution.