A student made the Lewis dot diagram of a compound as shown. Mg is written with two dots shown on its top. Cl is written on the right side of Mg. Cl has seven dots around it. An arrow is shown from one dot on Mg toward the vacant space around Cl. Another arrow is shown from the other dot on Mg toward the vacant space around Cl. On the top, the art title is written as Students Lewis Dot Model. What is the error in the Lewis dot diagram?

The dots were not properly located and arrows are not used in Lewis structures

Explanation:

If we intend to write a Lewis structure for a compound, that lewis structure must consist of only dots. These dots actually show the valence electrons on the outermost shell of the molecule.

We do not involve arrows when writing dot electron structures for compounds. The valence electrons of magnesium ought not to be written together because they are not a lone pair, rather they are two unpaired electrons. The use of an arrow suggests a coordinate covalent bond which is not the case here.

The correct lewis structure for MgCl2 is shown in the image attached to this answer.

explanation:

metals have excess of electrons whereas non-metals have deficiency of electrons. thus, in order to gain stability metals easily donate their electrons to the non-metals.

for example, electronic configuration of sodium is and electronic configuration of phosphorous is .

when a phosphorous atom and sodium atom combine together then sodium will donate is extra one electron to the phosphorous atom. as a result there will be formation of ionic bond between sodium and phosphorous.

the reaction will be as follows.

there, are three sodium sodium atoms and each of them will donate its one extra electron to phosphorous atom. thus, the sub-shell of phosphorous gets completely filled.  

thus, we can conclude that electrons are transferred from atoms of sodium to atoms of phosphorous. this transfer makes the sodium atoms donate one electron and the phosphorous atoms to gain one electron. as a result, the sodium and phosphorus atoms strongly attract each other.