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Did you hear the one about the guy who went onto Wikipedia and deleted 47,000 instances of the phrase comprised of?

Oh, dear. I hope youre not waiting for a punch line, because thats the whole story: A guy went onto Wikipedia and deleted 47,000 comprised ofs, replacing each with composed of or some other alternative. Its one of those stories in which the setup is the punch line. Theres just nothing funnier that you could add.

The guy is 51-year-old software engineer Bryan Henderson, one of countless thousands of people who take it upon themselves to click the edit button on entries in the online free-for-all in both senses of the term encyclopedia.

Henderson began scrubbing Wikipedia of comprised of in 2007, using a program he wrote to find the phrase, yet fixing each instance manually.

Thats his sole mission. Henderson doesnt bother with other errors, really. Just comprised of. And before you leap to any of the obvious criticisms , you might want to read the 6,000-word entry Henderson created to explain his crusade a screed in which hes already blasted pretty much any response you or I might have.

Want to argue with him that comprised of isnt technically an error? Hes way ahead of you, using carefully chosen language to describe the problem as poor phrasing and the like.

Want to argue that his efforts are pointless? Youd have a point. Throughout history, pretty much every attempt to force change upon the English language has failed. But to Henderson thats moot.

The arguments for leaving comprised of alone often point out that my edits will not erase the phrase from the language, make people stop using it, or prevent its eventual evolution into undisputed correct English, Henderson wrote. I agree with all of that, and I don't see how it makes a difference. Those things have never been goals of mine.

Want to argue that hes wasting his time? Another good point. But again, hes way ahead of you. An individual editor's allocation of his time shouldn't be anyone else's concern.

So all we can do is shrug and be grateful we have friends, TVs and stimulating hobbies like leaving Wikipedia entries just as they are. That and maybe turn the whole situation into an opportunity to learn about compose and comprise.

Read more:
A Word, Please: An editor's effort to correct a pet peeve