Inspect the working example
In the first sentence, draft is the word being contrasted with published page. In the second, keeping the source is the important instruction. These are two different meanings, even when both are visually unstyled.
| Case | Input or inspection | Result and meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Stress | Inspect em around draft | em retains stress semantics despite font-style:normal |
| Importance | Inspect strong around the instruction | strong remains an importance element without bold styling |
| Alert behavior | Inspect role attributes | No role=alert is created by strong |
Follow the browser mechanism
em changes the stressed part of a sentence; strong marks importance, seriousness or urgency. The elements are not commands to use italic and bold, although browsers commonly style them that way by default. Do not use strong as a replacement for a separate live-region or alert behavior.
Italic appearance does not establish stress
This span uses an italic style but is still a generic text container. It can look like the default appearance of em without being an em element.
<p>I asked for the <span style="font-style:italic">draft</span>.</p>The counterexample has one styled span and zero em elements. The working example has one em and one strong even after neutral styling.
Try the repair
You want to contrast “today” with “tomorrow”, rather than mark a safety warning. Which element expresses that stress?
Show the worked answer
Use em around today. Keep the sentence wording clear; the exact voice treatment remains dependent on the reader and its configuration.
- Check the em/strong element names and exact enclosed text.
- Separate meaning from computed font-style and font-weight.