Starting with the "plus two" first, I'll subtract two from either side of the equation. Only then will I divide through by the seven. My work looks like this:
7x + 2 = -54
-2 -2
------------
7x = -56
-- ---
7 7
x = -8
By doing the plus / minus first, I avoided fractions. As you can see, the answer doesn't involve fractions, so I did myself a favor by doing the dividing-through last. My solution is:
