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    That switches can be used as environments is not an accident, but is documented in Lamport's book.
    – Philipp
    Commented Dec 17, 2010 at 22:15
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    @Brian M. Hunt: All font-switching commands that start with \text… or \math… take an argument, all other font-switching commands (\itshape etc.) take effect until the end of the current group.
    – Philipp
    Commented Dec 17, 2010 at 22:17
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    @Brian: To add to what Philipp said, the difference between the two commands is how they're defined. The \textbf-style commands are defined to take a single argument, which they then style. The \Large-style commands take no arguments, but change how things are to be formatted. The only way to tell the difference in general is to look at the definitions or documentation, but Philipp's comment is exactly correct for the standard commands. Commented Dec 17, 2010 at 22:20
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    Note: In Lamport's LaTeX Manual, section 2.2.5 "Declarations", it is said that \begin{em} ... \end{em} is equivalent to {\em ...}, and the former is clearer. However, as @Philipp said, it does have some pitfalls, and should be used with care.
    – Leo Liu
    Commented Jan 17, 2011 at 14:43
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    Small correction: the \begingroup comes before not after the \csname in the expansion of \begin Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 14:44