12b from the GarBreadium worksheet

[Jackie Ngo 1C]

"draw the lowest energy Lewis structure for ClO4-" --> I know that if there's a minus sign in the molecular formula, you'd have to take it into account when adding up the valence electrons and drawing it into your Lewis structure, but when you had the brackets over the entire Lewis structure drawing with "-1" in the top right corner, would you have to remove a valence electron dot from the drawing to put it on the outside of the brackets? Or are the brackets just there to symbolize that that molecule has a charge? I hope my question makes sense!

[Kathryn 1F]

I think the brackets just symbolize that the molecule has a charge, like if something were []-, then the lewis structure would have an extra electron. I hope this answers your question!

[Niveda_B_3I]

It just symbolizes that the molecule is negatively charged, and that charge should be equal to your overall formal charge.

[Rachel-Weisz3C]

When there is a negative charge, it means that it is more negative than it would have been without the charge, this means that another electron has been added. You represent this by drawing another electron or dot when drawing the Lewis Structure. So when you add up all the valence electrons from the chemical formula, you will add one more due to the negative charge, and that is the total dots you will want to show in the diagram.