Grammar Rant

I go off on these every so often. This blog has been spared before, but not today.

Today’s rant:

Compose/comprise

Let’s review. Comprise means to “to contain, consist of”; compose means “to make up.” The parts compose (make up) the whole; the whole comprises (contains) the parts; the whole is composed of (NOT: is comprised of) the parts.

The parent corporation comprises (consists of) three major divisions.
Three major divisions compose (make up) the parent corporation.

Whew. I feel better. Authors, this is missed by so many writers and editors. If you get it right in your writing, you go up a notch or three in my book.