Comprise and compose

The internet, the FCC tells us in its new network neutrality rules, "is comprised of a multitude of different networks." FCC 10-201, at 30. Is it really too much to ask that a federal agency grasp the difference between "comprise" and "compose"? The internet may be said to comprise a multitude of different networks, or to be composed of such a multitude. Here's an easy way to remember the difference: The whole comprises the parts; the parts compose the whole. See Garner, Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 187 (1995), and, e.g., Fowler's 3d 167-68 (Burchfield, ed. 1996); Partridge, Usage and Abusage 74-75 (Whitcut, ed. 1995); Merriam-Webster's Usage 273 (1994).

Schoolboy errors do not encourage confidence in agency competence, and the substance of the rules lives down to the quality of the commission's English.