How to draw an. electron dot diagram. 1 write the chemical aymbo of the atom.2. determine the number of valence electron the atom has.3. place first two dot on the right side of the symbol.4. place the remaining dots around the symbol( on the bottom. the left side, and on top) 5. there should not be any more than two dots on either side .top. or bottom, and no electron should be left over. its my first time doing these .

Basically, an electron dot diagram is just a diagram showing the number of valence electrons a certain atom has (valence electrons are electrons in the outer-most electron level of an atom). The 5 steps they give you just tell you the order of where to put each dot.  The picture I attached gives a better representation.

The number around the symbol shows the order of where you would put the dot.  The 1 and the 2 on the top show that the first two dots go there, and the 3, 4, and 5 go around the rest of the sides.  When it gets to 6, 7, and 8, the numbers go back around to fill  in each side twice.