Essay

Order of Operations in Administrative Cost Formulas

An administrative assistant in your department is drafting an onboarding guide for new office clerks who manage inventory spreadsheets. One of the cost-allocation formulas used is represented by the expression 93(x+2){}9 - 3(x + 2). Some new clerks are incorrectly simplifying this formula by subtracting 3 from 9 first.

Write a brief training explanation that helps the clerks recall the correct algebraic rules to simplify this expression. In your essay, you must:

  1. State the name and definition of the algebraic order of operations rule that explains why multiplication (distribution) must be performed before subtraction.
  2. Identify the specific constant factor (including its sign) that must be distributed to the terms inside the parentheses.
  3. Show the step-by-step distribution and combination of like terms to demonstrate how 93(x+2){}9 - 3(x + 2) simplifies to 3x+3{}-3x + 3.

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Updated 2026-06-17

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