This text provides a pared-down but thorough approach that is perfectly suited to one-semester survey courses in general, organic, and biological chemistry. A visually striking, accessible design makes Essentials an engaging choice for both students and instructors.Instructors find Stoker"s pedagogical approach—including problem sets and learning objectives for each section, as well as cumulative practice quizzes at the ends of chapters—easy to apply and use. The text develops chemical topics starting at the ground level. Complicated mathematics is minimized and used only when it helps clarify a topic."Learning Focus" features start each section, providing a framework for study and motivating student learning."Chemical Portraits" profile chemical elements in the periodic table and explain their importance in students" everyday lives, offering students challenging questions linked to resources on the student web site."Chemistry at a Glance" sections provide brief summaries of core chapter concepts to help students visualize difficult material."Margin Notes," distributed throughout the text, provide tips for remembering and distinguishing between concepts, highlight links across chapters, and describe interesting historical background.Section-ending "Practice Questions and Problems" reinforce ideas and focus students" attention on learning one concept.The art program visually communicates core concepts of general, organic, and biological chemistry and effectively distinguishes pedagogical features from one another.The text"s focus on biochemistry is particularly helpful to the many students for whom this subject matter is highly applicable to their careers. The biochemistry chapters in the text were written first, with the general and organic chapters written after to support the biochemistry presentation.Chapter outlines highlight the most important material found in each chapter.In-text worked-out examples walk students through a problem-solving scenario. They are followed by "Practice Exercises" that reinforce the information presented in the examples. "Key Terms" and their definitions are highlighted in the text on first use. Each definition appears in a complete sentence, and key terms are also listed at the end of each chapter.