Reading a scheme

Start with the conditions. A strong base, an acid, a metal, a peroxide: the reagent line narrows the reaction type before you look at a single bond.
Find what changed. Compare starting material and product atom by atom: which bond formed, which left, and whether the carbon count grew.
Substitution vs. elimination vs. addition is a bookkeeping question: same number of σ bonds, fewer, or more.
Mechanism follows structure. A tertiary or benzylic center with a weak nucleophile points to a cation; a primary center with a strong nucleophile does not.
Every example here is a real reaction with a real citation. The yields are the authors’ own.

Other nucleophilic acyl substitutions

2 real reactions from the literature, on acid chlorides and carbamates. Each scheme shows starting materials, conditions and products, with the yield and reference where the source reports them.

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Other acyl substitution: benzoyl chloride (an acid chloride) with KSH gives thiobenzoic acid (the acyl substitution product).

Other acyl substitutionOrg. Synth. 1952, 32, 101
Other acyl substitution: a carbamate with i-PrLi (adds to C=S; the alkoxide then displaces OtBu from the Boc group) gives the acyl substitution product and the acyl substitution product.

Other acyl substitutionRealOChem worksheet