What people get wrong

Read any annual report, press release or grant application and you will meet a sentence like The board is comprised of nine directors. It sounds formal, which is exactly why people reach for it. It is also one of the phrases careful editors circle most reliably.

The traditional rule is tidy. In the words of the American Heritage Dictionary's usage note, "the whole comprises the parts and the parts compose the whole." A deck comprises 52 cards. Fifty-two cards compose a deck. Comprise already means "consist of" or "include," so adding of gives you, strictly speaking, "is consisted of" — which nobody would write on purpose.

Is it actually wrong?

This is where honesty beats a punchy rule. "Comprised of" is not a typo or a non-word. Cambridge Dictionary lists the "make up" sense and gives examples such as The class is comprised mainly of Italian and French students. Usage has been drifting toward acceptance for decades.

The American Heritage Usage Panel, a group of writers and scholars the dictionary surveys, tracks the drift. In the 1960s, 53 percent of the panel found the "is comprised of" usage unacceptable. By 1996 the figure was 35 percent, and by 2011 it had fallen to 32 percent. So opposition has faded, but roughly a third of a panel of professional writers still objects. That is a lot of readers to irritate for no gain.

Style authorities have been less forgiving. The Canadian government's legislative drafting guide surveys a shelf of usage books — Fowler's, the Longman Guide, the Gregg Reference Manual, The Canadian Style — and notes that several of them disapprove of is comprised of. Its own advice is blunter still: drafters should not use comprise at all, and should write consist of, is composed of, include or constitute instead.

Why it happens

Two forces push people toward the phrase. First, comprise and compose look and sound alike, and composed of is perfectly standard, so comprised of feels like its fancier sibling. Second, as Dictionary.com points out, the two words describe the same relationship from opposite ends, whole-to-parts versus parts-to-whole, and it is easy to lose track of which end you are standing on mid-sentence.

There is also a register trap. Comprise is a formal word, and formal-sounding words attract people writing formal documents, which are exactly the documents most likely to be read by someone with a red pen.

The fix

If comprises feels stiff, you have three plain alternatives that nobody objects to:

• consists of: The committee consists of seven members.
• is composed of / is made up of: The committee is made up of seven members.
• includes, when you are not listing every part: The committee includes two retired judges.

And if you want to put the parts first, use compose or make up: Seven members make up the committee.

How to check

Search your draft for "comprised of" and replace it with "made up of." If the sentence still reads naturally (it almost always will), keep the swap. Then search for "comprise" on its own and confirm the whole is the subject: the whole comprises, the parts compose.

Sources

1. American Heritage Dictionary: usage note at 'comprise'
2. Cambridge Dictionary: comprise
3. Department of Justice Canada, Legistics: Comprise
4. Dictionary.com: Comprise vs. Compose