I'm trying to figure out shorthand ways, ways to write down things faster.

 

So, I recently learned that instead of writing C=O, I can just write CO.

For instance...

 

 

I know that for benzene, a person can draw a six-carbon ring and put in a circle.

What about the image I uploaded? Can I put a ring in there instead of drawing the three lines?

Imagine I had to draw this thing like 20+ more times...

 

I'm looking for shorthand ways of drawing these things out.

Edited April 2, 201114 yr by Genecks

The vast majority of chemistry short hands are for certain functional groups e.g. the BOC group, CBZ, Fmoc....these are all protecting group. The problem is that if you simplify a benzene ring any further, you lose the information of the positions of the groups around the ring (e.g. where they are). I would basically advice you to become very good at drawign hexagons. Alternatively, invest in chemistry stenciles...

I would have drawn it like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I personally think that drawing the carbonyl is easier in a lot of cases than is writing CO. Plus, it makes drawing ring structures a bit easier (for me at least). Groups such as Et, CO₂Et, Ph, etc. I tend to write, depending on what I'm doing. If I'm drawing a mechanism, I draw out the pertinent bits of the molecule that I might otherwise write in short hand. If it's for a paper, I do short hand for protecting groups and typical reagents only.

 

As for the phenyl group problem: I personally don't like the circle in the middle business and I will always draw the bonds. It's a matter of preference I suppose. Another way to represent a phenyl group is with the symbol, Ø. It obviously doesn't to the case above. It's more if the phenyl group is a substituent.