This seventh
edition, like its predecessors, blends the traditional functional-group
approach with a mechanistic approach. The primary organization is by functional
group, beginning with the simple (alkenes) and progressing to the more complex.
Most faculty will agree that students new to the subject and not yet versed in
the subtleties of mechanism do better this way. In other words, the what of
chemistry is generally easier to grasp than the why. Students usually
attach great importance to a text’s lead-off reaction because it is the first
reaction they see and are discussed in such detail. Use the addition of HBr to
an alkene as the lead-off to illustrate general principles of organic chemistry
for several reasons: the reaction is relatively straightforward; it involves a
common but important functional group; no prior knowledge of stereochemistry or
kinetics in needed to understand it; and, most important, it is a polar reaction.
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