3. Balance oxygen by adding H2O as needed:

4. To balance hydrogen, add H+ as needed: (Note: You still do this if you are in basic solution, later on, you will add OH- to "neutralize" the acid.)

5. Balance the charge of each reaction by adding electrons to side with the greater charge:

6. Multiply each half-reaction by the least integer factor that equalizes the number of electrons in each half-reaction. Then, add the half-reactions to obtain the overall balanced reaction in acidic solution:

If your redox reaction is in acidic solution, the above reaction is properly balanced. However, if the reaction you wish to balance is in basic solution, you need to add these three steps:

7. If the redox reaction is one in basic solution, then add OH- to both sides of the equation to "neutralize" each H+: