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Q&A Are there legitimate uses for using bold for emphasis within a sentence?

Bold is one way to emphasize something in a sentence. Recasting the sentence to put the emphasis where you want it is another method. Is one preferable to another? I'm not sure. The point of any wr...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:49Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23391
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:20:22Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23391
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:20:22Z (over 4 years ago)
Bold is one way to emphasize something in a sentence. Recasting the sentence to put the emphasis where you want it is another method. Is one preferable to another? I'm not sure. The point of any writing is to communicate your point clearly and if using bold does that, why not?

Conventional practice, however, seems to shy away from it in published work. You very rarely see bold used for emphasis in books or magazines. For technical material, you often see bold used to call out text from a different source, such as words appearing on a computer display. Obviously if you are using bold for this purpose, it would be confusing to also use it for emphasis.

One the other hand, in quick communication, where the writer may not have the time or the skill to recast, then the use of bold to clarify meaning is common and I see no reason to object to it if gets the job done. It is also commonly used on signs, where the emphasis is on reducing the amount of text to a minimum, and recasting for emphasis might increase word count.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-06-16T13:37:33Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 1