Jesse, the order doesn't matter. When manipulating equations, the most important thing to remember is that what you do to one side, you must do to the other. However, there is an easy way and a hard way.

Let me make this suggestion so that you become comfortable with manipulating equations: the two steps you listed above, try them both and see which is easiest. Remember, like anything else, you have to practice math to get good at it, its just not as fun as borderlands or final fantasy!

You need to get all the n's to one side of the equation. You could move all the n's to the 2/3n side, so you would get:

2/3n-4n+10/3n=-1/2

Or you could do it this way (in two steps):

1. Move the -1/2 to the other side:

2/3n+1/2=4n-10/3n

2. Then move the 2/3n to the other side:

1/2=4n-10/3n-2/3n

The point is to get all the variables (the n's) on one side of the equal sign, and everything else on the other side. This is called isolating the variables.

After isolating the variables, you can then simplify.