CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

I understand how to calculate formal charges. What are the methods you can use to reduce them? I should be checking formal charges on every problem I do, correct?

Yes, especially if you need to make a resonance structure you should check the formal charge on each atom to see which resonance structure is most stable. If there are more than one, then you would draw all of them because they are equally likely to occur. Methods to reduce formal charge would be to see if you can remove a lone pair by creating another bond with an atom (going from a single bond and lone pair to a double bond). Another thing you can try is always making the molecule as symmetrical as possible and that should help reduce formal charge when possible.

To reduce formal charges it is effective to move lone pairs and bonds around while continuously checking the formal charge, so it can be closest to 0. You should definitely look at formal charges in every problem that you do.

Would we need to show every step on the test or just the final molecule with the lowest formal charge?