The confusion between compose and comprise is another story. Their first syllable is spelled and sounded identically, and their meanings are close. As the note says, the parts compose the whole, and the whole comprises the parts, so this is an easy mistake to make. In fact, I see them used interchangeably so often in quality books and periodicals that some dictionaries are beginning to accept them as synonyms. You can look them up in AskOxford.com, M-W.com, or Dictionary.com.
