Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse writers. I have found the following to be among them:
COMPOSE / COMPRISE
One of the most common meanings of compose is form or make up.
Comprise, on the other hand, can mean include or consist of.
The confusion here is mainly due to that little word of, which is correctly used with the word compose but is often already included in the meaning of the word comprise:
The castle is composed of many rooms.
The castle grounds comprise a massive gate and a moat as well as lush gardens.
In this case, comprise means are composed of.
But just to confuse the issue, comprise can also mean make up or constitute:
The chemical compound NaCl, more commonly known as salt, is composed of the elements sodium and chlorine.
The elements sodium and chlorine comprise the compound NaCl, more commonly known as salt.
To make matters even more troublesome, this mercurial verb is also used with the preposition of to mean made up or consist:
This year’s holiday program will be comprised of a play as well as both choral and instrumental music.
Go figure. I think I’ll stick with composed of when using the preposition of with the verb and remain a bit wary of the verb comprise for a while longer.
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