Comprise and Composed Of
I ran into an article starting on page 232 in the current (Volume 109) American Scientist that uses both of these words correctly. Here’s “comprise”:
The work, comprising three stacked series of hand-etched glass panels (approximately 0.5 meter by 1 meter each) addresses resilience and plasticity in the body—a theme of damage and repair.
(Note the correct M-dash, too!)
Here’s the other sentence:
Each of the three pieces in this installation is composed of multiple glass panels stacked vertically to convey cellular elements in a three-dimensional space, or layers and depth of overlapping tissues.
And just to be sure you get it, here are the rules:
- Comprise goes from one to many, or the whole to a list of parts. In this case, work to panels
- Composed of means the same as comprise. Never say “comprised of.” So it goes from Each (singular) to multiple panels (plural).
- Compose by itself goes from parts to the whole. “Three panels compose one piece of art.”
Here’s a picture from the author’s site:
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