Assigning event handlers to HTML objects

I have tried to assing an onclick event to an HTML object, but for some reason the event is ignored. Can anyone advise what’s wrong with the code?

This doesn’t work:

[CODE]<span id=myArea>Click Me</span>
<script language=”javascript”>
document.getElementById(“myArea”).onclick = “alert(‘My Message’)”
</script>[/CODE]

This is what it should be equivalent to (and which works):

[CODE]<span id=myArea onclick = “alert(‘My Message’)”>Click Me</span>[/CODE]

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