[samiam]

I was looking at this example : http://ars.sciencedirect.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1386142502001129-gr1.gif  (picture also attached)
Is the Reason they show nitrogen as having a positive charge because it is sharing two of its electrons with carbon, when in covalent bonds it usually shares 1.

And is the reason why oxygen has a negative charge because it picked up its original electron it shared with carbon as well as one of carbons electron?


thank you

[gooby]

You're on the right track. This will explain why this is the case generally:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_charge