Abstract Arrow symbols represent the nature of reactions and the relationship of the reactants and products in organic chemistry. This paper expounded the classifications, explanations and discussions of the arrow symbols widely used in the teaching and learning of organic chemistry, and clarified their meaning and ranges of application. In addition,this paper analyzed and addressed the common misuse of the arrow symbols, and introduced the new bouncing curved arrow for explaining mechanisms of reactions that bouncing curved arrows more explicitly describe bond formation in reactions with the possibility of different regioisomeric products.
