This book is designed to give the student a solid foundation in the basic principles that are involved
in writing organic mechanisms so that further study may be undertaken with confidence.
In Part I, the basic principles that are common to all mechanisms are explained in detail. Some of
the exercises may seem very easy, but they are all important, because they instil a precision and
discipline that is essential in dealing with more complicated mechanisms. Fluency in writing
mechanisms comes from practice, and in particular from recognising when a proposed intermediary
is impossible or highly unlikely.
In Part II, examples of the main mechanistic pathways are given. No attempt has been made to
cover exhaustively all the synthetic routes or reactions that could be encountered by a first year
undergraduate. However, by reaching an understanding of why a particular mechanism is followed
in any given situation, an appreciation is necessarily developed of the major synthetic methods that
may be deployed in producing organic chemicals. There is an emphasis upon understanding the
stereochemistry of the interactions between reagents and substrate and the consequences on the
geometry of the product, because such an appreciation is of fundamental importance in
comprehending an organic mechanism fully.
Part III consists of several appendices, which cover all the essential information and simple odds
and ends that are often left untaught because it has been erroneously assumed that the student already
knows the point in question.