Q.Draw the structure of the following
Resonance structure of nitric acid

Step 1. Recall section 9.7.6. HNO3's central, sp2-hybridised nitrogen cannot be described by one fixed Lewis structure; the N-O bonding is delocalised across two of the three N-O bonds.

Step 2. Describe both contributing structures in words. In one structure, nitrogen forms a double bond (N=O) to one terminal oxygen and a single bond to the other terminal oxygen (which then carries a formal negative charge), with nitrogen carrying a formal positive charge; the third oxygen (bonded to the acidic H) is single-bonded to N in both structures. In the second contributing structure, the double bond and the negative charge simply swap to the other terminal oxygen, with N's positive charge unchanged. …

Describing the two resonance contributors given in section 9.7.6 in words, since an actual draw …

• Presenting only one Lewis structure as 'the' structure of HNO3, missing the point that resonance means the real molecule is an aver …